Luna
by UltraElectroMagnetic
Summary: This story tells the bloody first meeting of Sakuya and Remilia, chronicles the massive First Lunar War between the Earth's Humans and the Lunarians, as well as Sakuya's involvement and struggle during the closing stages of the war, and finally, how the Scarlet Devil Mansion appeared in the land of Gensokyo. (Lots of OC, violence, and swearing)
1. Prima, Chapter 1: Pressing Matters

**Luna I: Scarlet Moon**

A Touhou Fanfiction

_by__Diego__Magallona_

This started as a one-shot I wrote on my Tumblr for fun. I wrote a little story with Sakuya as a Nazi Paranormal Agent in World War 2, going to France and meeting Remilia(if by meeting, you mean going head to head and trying to kill each other). So, the very first form of this was a much shorter version of Luna I: Chapter 3. Of course, I got so into the story that I decided to extend it. Now it's the story of how Sakuya met Remilia(and ultimately come to server her), while Luna II and III take a leap a few decades after World War 2 and delve into Sakuya's involvement in the First Lunar War, as well as a look at the Earth's viewpoint, and to a smaller extent, the Lunarian viewpoint of the Lunar War, and how that first Lunar War ended. Hope you enjoy reading as much as I did writing! (Warning: OCs, lots of violence, lots of cursing.)

_Disclaimer: Touhou Project and all its characters and other elements belong to Team Shanghai Alice._

**Chapter 1: Pressing Matters**

Berlin, Germany. February, 1942. While the rest of Europe was suffering under the occupation of Nazi Germany, most Berliners were enjoying a good life. Germany had conquered all of mainland Europe, save for Russia, which was expected to fall after Moscow's and Stalingrad's predicted falls.

The only major concern was the fact that the United States had joined the war and was mobilizing to help the British Empire in Africa. That threat aside, the war was basically over. Basically. For the occupational forces, things were just getting started. Partisans, 'freedom' fighters, guerrillas, and commandos were popping up everywhere in occupied territory. Some incident reports were more…interesting than others, and the SS Paranormal Division, Ahnenerbe, was busy seeing to these stranger events.

The SS isn't formally open to women, but money, brains, and talent can go a long way. There she was, walking out of her car wearing an SS officer's uniform, trench coat, and an officer's hat that hid her hair. This Ahnenerbe_Hauptsturmfuhrer,_the SS equivalent of Wehrmacht_Hauptmann_, or Captain, had all three, and she was a woman. Ironically, the real Ahnenerbe head of operations in Western Europe was also a woman, and the _Hauptsturmfuhrer_was about to meet her.

"The _Oberfuhrer_ is expecting you, _Fraulein Hauptsturmfuhrer_," said the guard of the Ahnenerbe headquarters as the 'Captain' walked inside. She made her way up the flights of stairs, and reached the top floor, where the_Oberfuhrer_ was waiting for her. Another officer just left the room and told her, "_Hauptsturmfuhrer_, please. You mustn't keep _Fraulein Obenfuhrer_waiting."

She opened the door, and saluted to the _Oberfuhrer._ The O_berfuhrer_'s room was small. It only had the _Oberfuhrer_'s desk and chair, drawers and cabinets for papers and books, as well as a few chairs for anyone she required to see. The room had no windows, and was soundproof if the door was sealed. There were two SS Guards in the room as well. The _Oberfuhrer_ smiled, stood up, and saluted her back. The Oberfuhrer had very long silver-white hair, tied in one braid at the back. She had grey eyes, and her face was flawless; she had no scars or blemishes. She wore her SS Officer Uniform, albeit hers was cleaner and had more awards than the captain's. She told the 'Captain' to hang her trench coat and hat, before allowing the conversation to start.

"_Oberfuhrer_ Yagokoro, you requested I return from Russia immediately?" the captain asked.

The _Oberfuhrer_ sat back down and replied, "Yes, I did. It was useless for you to stay in there, based on your reports. Even if we could raise an army of Teutonic crusaders back to life, they'd be cut down by a single Russian machine gun. I can't believe we set out on this idiotic venture in the first place. Anyway, we have more pressing matters; take a seat."

The captain sat down on a chair next to the _Oberfuhrer_'s desk and told the _Oberfuhrer_, "I think we should expect failures like this. Besides, we wouldn't be the 'SS paranormal division' if we didn't venture off to test these occult theories." The Oberfuhrer nodded.

"Indeed. Like I said, we've received something very promising here, and I need your skills on this one. I can't just send some mad scientist and soldiers for this case."

"So, where am I going?" the captain asked. The _Oberfuhrer_ pointed to an area on a map of France, turned to the captain, and answered, "You will be going to the French countryside. It's come to our word that Wehrmacht forces sweeping the area for French Resistance fighters have encountered a…problem."

"What kind of problem, _Oberfuhrer_?"

"Well, there's this old estate out in the countryside, you see…it's called the Scarlet Devil Mansion, if I'm not mistaken; I'm not fluent in French. Rightly named; Tanks can't get in the estate, since the main road to it is mined. There are surely many resistance fighters holed up there, and a day assault without armour would be suicide with all the tight areas they've surely locked down. Artillery is out of the question on this one; high command wants that mansion intact. So, we rely on night raids and assaults. This is where the problem starts."

The _Oberfuhrer_ paused a moment before continuing, "At night, pioneers are sent to clear the mines for tanks, and soldiers move to attack positions in small groups. Before any progress can be done, most of these men are gruesomely mutilated, all dead, except a few lucky survivors that managed to say a few things before going mad from fear; things about a winged hunter. A few of the corpses were still intact, but all their blood was sucked out from bite marks on the neck. You know what this means."

"Vampires," The captain said immediately. The Oberfuhrer smiled and replied, "Yes, _Hauptsturmfuhrer_. Vampires. I've already made arrangements with the Wehrmacht to give you support. You'll have the Heer's best troops at your disposal. Leutnant Richter will meet you in Paris and explain the rest. You leave tomorrow, but first, let's have a chat, without all this formal stuff" The Oberfuhrer signalled the two guards to leave the room.

"You know I was in Japan a full moon ago, right?" The Oberfuhrer asked the captain. "Yes, I was aware," she replied.

"I met a young woman on one of the battleships. Almost the same predicament as we are in: Women aren't allowed in the Navy, but she got in because she beat up 5 other sailors outside the naval base years back. The commander wasn't angry; instead he allowed her to enlist. She was a junior officer on that battleship. And now, Japan's in the war. She'll have to fight the Americans now. What was her name? Minamitsu, was it? Oh, I forget, but it's just that before I left the ship, we both stared at the full moon. It was beautiful. Sometimes I wish I could go back."

"To Japan?" The captain asked. "No. To the Moon; Luna, but I'm not going back. I'll never go back."

The captain sighed and said, "Eirin…" referring to the Oberfuhrer. "_Hauptsturmfuhrer_…"

"Eirin, I have a name, you know, it's.." Eirin interrupted, "I know, I know, sorry. We're getting carried away. We still have jobs to do, but have you figured out anything else about that nice pocketwatch?"

The captain reached into her pocket and pulled out a Pocket Watch that didn't have a solid cover. The time was written in Roman Numerals, engraved in white with a black border on an inner glass cover. Behind it were all the gears and cogs that could be seen moving behind the numerals, and from the centre of the clock, three hands extended: The Hour hand, the minute hand, and a third hand that wasn't moving and was stuck on the number 12. This was covered by another layer of glass in front, and the back of the watch was golden. On top of the pocket watch was the watch chain. There were three buttons on the upper right side of the clock.

"Well, this is what I've learned from Luna Dial so far: I can stop time for up to 30 seconds, then it deactivates. When I stop time, only I am affected. The numbers glow and the third hand will move when I activate it. The third hand counts down the time until it deactivates."

Eirin nodded, held the watch and examined it for a moment. "What do these other two buttons do?"

"I don't know. I can't move them. Perhaps it's to adjust the hands?"

Eirin laughed. "Oh, please! This isn't an Earth-made pocket watch; this is highly advanced technology, even for the Lunarians. I'm sure it adjusts itself. Keep the Luna Dial with you, and don't hesitate to use it. We need to learn more. I don't even know how they were able to put such power into that little pocket watch. Luckily, your mother gave it to you before the Lunar Defence Force could get their hands on it; they'd mass produce it and abuse it for sure. Brilliant mind, your mother had. It's such a shame she had to…" Eirin stopped and looked at the captain. "…Right, sorry. I think that's enough for today. Dismissed. "


	2. Prima, Chapter 2: French Resistance

**Chapter 2: French Resistance**

The next day, the captain set out for Paris. When she arrived the next day, she was greeted by the sight of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomph, sad French faces, and of course the occupying Wehrmacht soldiers, who, in contrast with the French, were very happy. Leutnant Richter was waiting for the captain when she arrived at the Paris Headquarters.

"Welcome to France, mein Fraulein," Richter said in a cheerful voice, as he helped the captain out of her car. Richter was quite young; he appeared to be in his late 20s. He had short blonde hair, and blue eyes, and wore a Wehrmacht Officer's uniform.

"What's with the machetes and all the throwing knives?" Richter asked. "They're my weapon of choice: Quiet, and very bloody," replied the captain.

Richter nodded and said, "The SS really give me the creeps sometimes." The captain replied, "I'm from the SS paranormal division, so that's expected."

"Your men seem to be enjoying themselves here, _Leutnant_," the captain said. "Indeed they are; this is Paris. What's not to enjoy?" The two both laughed lightly, then the captain replied in a more serious tone, "I do hope they are enjoying themselves, because if this vampire is real, they may not live to see tomorrow."

"Of course, mein Fraulein." Richter replied.

The two proceeded into the headquarters, where they met _Hauptmann_ Karl, who was, in rank, equivalent to _Hauptsturmfuhrer._He recently got involved in the vampire operation. That was good thing of course. Karl commanded a company of Wehrmacht troops, and they were going to sweep the countryside to the north that day in an attempt to destroy whatever is left of the French resistance in that area. The offensive will pass the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and the _Hauptsturmfuhrer,_ with a platoon of soldiers from the company, will assault the mansion directly at sunset, by breaching the walls of the estate and entering the mansion's back courtyard. While they fight there, a second assault platoon will clear the mines on the front gate's path, and join the assault from there, putting pressure on both sides of the mansion and allowing armour support to enter the estate.

"Well, that's the plan, _Hauptsturmfuhrer_," Karl told them. The _Hauptsturmfuhrer_ nodded in approval. "Are the men assigned to accompany me aware that we are to subdue this vampire, not kill it?" Karl chuckled, and replied, "Of course, if that thing is even real. I doubt it, though. Damn French are just trying to trick us."

"Hmph," the _Hauptsturmfuhrer_expressed, "Honestly, I hope you're wrong. This is a lot more fun than going to boring old churches looking for proof of '_Aryan Supremacy.'"_ The three officers had a good laugh. _Hauptmann_ Karl pat the two on the back, smiling. "Get ready. We leave in 2 hours."

A few minutes before the offensive, Hauptmann Karl's Adler Kompanie was mobilized outside the city, and forward to their positions. The _Hauptsturmfuhrer_was in a halftrack with Richter and a few squads of soldiers. Karl's voice then started speaking on the radio: "Adler Kompanie, looks like we're in for a fight. Goddamn partisans know we're coming; they've occupied a village near the Scarlet Estate. Bastards want to go down with a fight, so be it. _Hauptsturmfuhrer, Leutnant,_ This makes your job easier. You can expect less resistance inside the estate itself. Panzergruppe II, take your tanks, and 30 men, and swing around the village. Hit it from the east flank; the _Hauptsturmfuhrer_and her troops will follow you, and break off when the estate is in sight. Kompanie, ADVANCE!"

A squadron of tanks spearheaded the advance, followed by armoured cars and halftracks filled with soldiers. The green French countryside was a battleground again. A group of tanks, followed by a few halftracks, broke off from the main attack force, and proceeded through grassy fields to get around the village. One tank and two halftracks broke off again from this group, and proceeded down a narrower road. The sounds of battle filled the air of France again, as Adler Kompanie battled French Resistance fighters and partisans in the small village. "Hauptmann Karl, this is Luchs. We've spotted at least one British commando in the village. This shouldn't be a problem. We have the village completely surrounded. No one is escaping."

"Excellent work, Luchs. Keep up the pressure. If those partisans don't surrender, feel free to terminate them, but I want those commandos alive."

"_Ja wohl_, _Herr Hauptmann_," replied Luchs on the radio. The time was around 5:30. The _Hauptsturmfuhrer's_, group had split into two, one halftrack moved to the estate's back wall, and the tank and second halftrack positioned on the main road leading to the estate. The lone halftrack dismounted its troops and they began placing explosive charges on the estate's wall. On the opposite side of the estate, the tank and the pioneers from the other halftrack waited for the assault to start before clearing the road of mines.

A few minutes passed, and Karl was again heard on the radio, "_Hauptsturmfuhrer,_we've secured the village, took a lot of prisoners, casualties minimal. How is it on your end?"

The _Hauptsturmfuhrer_ took the radio and replied, "We're just about to breach the estate walls."

Karl replied, "Alright. We'll just finish off the stragglers and get ready to go. Good hunting."


	3. Prima, Chapter 3: Scarlet Devil

**Chapter 3: Scarlet Devil**

At sunset, the _Hauptsturmfuhrer (captain)_ and the soldiers breached the walls of the Mansion's perimeter and entered the courtyard. They were greeted with machine gun fire. French resistance fighters. The Germans hit the deck and returned fire with their rifles. A few soldiers hid behind a stone fountain in the centre of the courtyard.

A few French partisans ran towards the Germans guns blazing, but were easily picked off. "Pioneers, what's your status on the main road?" Richter barked on the radio. "This road is shit! It's too narrow for the tank. Request to move to the side and use the tank to ram through the wall," replied a voice on the radio.

Richter shouted, "Do it! Just get that tank into the estate! Hurry!" The French machine gun fired a few rounds that penetrated the fountain and hit Richter in the head, killing him, and another soldier instantly.

When the machine gunner stopped to reload, the captain threw a knife and it hit the gunner's neck, went through the neck, splattering blood, and hit another fighter. The German soldiers then stormed the mansion's front and made short work of the French there. The captain was puzzled. Was that it? The encounter wasn't terrifying at all. Nothing vampire like. "Schultz, give me that radio." The captain took the radio and contacted Hauptmann Karl.

"I read you, _Hauptsturmfuhrer_, what's the situation?" Karl asked on the radio.

"There's nothing here. We've killed all the partisans, but we didn't encounter anything strange."

"That's it then," Karl said, "_Hauptsturmfuhrer_, we'll go on ahead. It's getting dark. Finish cleaning up there. getting hungry, so, I'll see you all back at Paris. Over and out."

And then the sun finally set. The captain made a sudden realization. "Dark…." And she looked up at the night sky.

The full-moon was different this evening; the moon was blood red. It was a total lunar eclipse. As night settled in, a figure appeared in the sky, as fast as the wind, coming from the mansion. It was invisible; the sky was too dark, and the object was too fast. With the red moon as its backlight, the figure spread its wings and everyone could see the terrifying silhouette of the vampire: A woman, in a dress, with large bat wings protruding from her back, holding a long spear on one hand.

The vampire swooped down and hit the middle of the courtyard, the force killing 5 German soldiers immediately. The figure proceeded to massacre the rest of the soldiers using her spear, teeth, and claws. It didn't even take 30 seconds; she was just too fast. Just then, the tank smashed through the estate's wall, followed by more soldiers, and fired an explosive shell towards the vampire. It was a direct hit. The smoke cleared and only a group of bats flew away from the smoke. The survivors thought it was over, but the bats came together and transformed back into the vampire, and they saw her.

The vampire appeared to look like a young girl. She looked like she was in her early teens. Her eyes were glowing blood red, and her hair was a short and strangely, coloured light-blue. Her white dress was dyed Scarlet from spilled human blood. She threw her spear at the tank, and the tank exploded as the spear impacted it. The remaining soldiers were no match for her. All dead, except the SS _Hauptsturmfuhrer._

The SS captain was not prepared to give up so easily. The captain threw off her hat, revealing her smooth silver hair that shined in the Full-moon lit night. She also removed her heavy trench coat, so she could move more swiftly. As the vampire swooped down on her, she let loose 10 knives, and to the vampire's surprise, 20 more knives appeared out of thin air, but the vampire was fast. A knife whizzed past her face, scratching her cheek.

The vampire became enraged and charged at the captain with even more speed and power. The vampire slashed at the captain with her claws, but the claw didn't hit anything. The captain wasn't where she was a millisecond ago. The Vampire anticipated what would happen next. The vampire ascended to the skies in a flash, avoiding another barrage of knives. The vampire lunged at the captain from the darkness, and the captain narrowly avoided the attack. She wasn't unharmed, though; her uniform was ripped at the shoulder and blood was coming out of the rip.

She opened her pocket watch, which was now filled with her blood, one last time. "Luna Dial...don't fail me now..." The captain drew 2 machetes from their sheathes and charged at the vampire, stopping time with the Luna Dial and stabbed the vampire with one machete when something went wrong. The Luna Dial malfunctioned from the blood inside it. The captain wasn't able to keep time in stasis as long as she could before. Time resumed exactly 5 seconds after the button press, instead of 30, and the captain took the spear Gungnir through her chest. Was this the end? Not yet.

The captain, by chance, pressed another button on the Luna Dial Pocketwatch, that formerly served no purpose, as she died. Time went in reverse 10 seconds, then it resumed before the two clashed, but Luna Dial was overheating. The captain knew what would happen if she stopped time again and instead slid down and narrowly dodged the vampire's spear.

She attempted to slash at the vampire again, but the vampire caught the machete with her hand. The vampire's palm was cut, but the vampire broke the machete's blade with her hand by clenching her fist before the captain could go any further.

The captain pressed the first button again, and again Luna Dial stopped time. She dashed away from the vampire, throwing her remaining knives as time resumed. The vampire saw the knives appear out of thin air and she was too close to dodge them. The vampire was hit by the barrage of knives. The captain charged the wounded vampire, but the vampire, still standing, threw the Gungnir, which never misses its mark, at the captain.

The captain smiled as she pressed a button on Luna Dial to stop time, but she made a mistake; Luna Dial can't function properly after reversing time, because of the massive energy needed for reversal. The buttons were locked in place; Luna Dial was cooling down, and the captain couldn't stop time when the spear Gungnir pierced her shoulder, and the vampire used her powerful claws to slash at her chest, splattering a great deal of the captain's blood. The captain fell to her knees, her blood everywhere: on the ground, on her clothes, on her body. She attempted to stand again, but failed, blood now gushing out of her shoulder wounds and pouring out of her mouth.

The vampire, surprised and impressed that the captain was still alive, picked up Luna Dial, and licked the blood off once side of the clock with one slow movement of her tongue. She turned to the captain, and looked at her as she licked the blood off her fingers in a seducing manner. "You're not human either, aren't you?" the vampire asked. "No human can take that many injuries and still be breathing," the vampire added as she forcibly pulled Gungnir out of the captain's shoulder. The captain screamed in pain as this happened, then smiled, and replied in a weak voice, "I'm Half-Human; Half-Lunarian." The vampire wanted to spare the captain to learn more about her, but, afraid that the captain would try to kill her again, performed a blood pact with the captain. There was plenty of both of their blood lying around the courtyard anyway. The vampire would let her live if she served the vampire for the rest of her mortal life. The captain reluctantly agreed. She wasn't ready to die. Not here. Not now. The vampire, Remilia Scarlet, gave the SS _Hauptsturmfuhrer_ a new name: Izayoi Sakuya.

End Luna I


	4. Secunda, Chapter 1: Man on the Moon

**Luna II: Lunar War**

A Touhou Fanfiction

_By Diego Magallona_

**Chapter 1: Man on the Moon**

Eric Callahan was awoken by the sound of his brother's shouting downstairs. Apparently, the whole family was downstairs, eating lunch. Eric slept in again. He wondered: what could possibly have his brother cheering like that? Today was a calm and rather ordinary July day in Washington, ruling out the fact that the United States is spearheading the Vietnam War and could start a nuclear war with the USSR any day now.

Ah, yes. Now he remembers: The Lunar landing. It looks like Apollo 11 has finally reached the moon. "HEY, BIG BROTHER, THE ASTRONAUT IS GONNA LAND ON THE MOON!" shouted Eric's little brother, Steve.

Eric, with his eyes only half open, replied in a soft voice that his brother couldn't hear, "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

Eric got out of his room, and went down the stairs of his family's 2-story house. Still in his pyjamas, Eric joined his family on the couch and watched the astronauts on TV. "One step for man; one giant leap for mankind," said Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon.

After all that was over, the family had a late lunch and continued with their ordinary lives. Later that afternoon, a military truck stopped at the Callahan residence.

A man knocked on the door, and Eric answered it. The man had great news for the Callahan family: Their bum son, Eric, who had just turned 19, was being drafted into the Army.

"Well, Eric, looks like you're going to 'Nam. You'll finally get to do something useful in your life!" said Eric's father.

Eric's straight face turned into a distraught face, one filled with fear, as he uttered the only words he could think of to describe the situation: "Aww, shit."

"Private Callahan! Get your ass to the chopper!" It's October now. 9 weeks of basic training…9 weeks of hell for Eric. He got shipped to Vietnam as soon as he graduated.

Usually a graduation from basic training is a proud day, but Eric's family didn't show up, and he and his company were shipped to Vietnam right after the ceremony. Eric was stationed on a base on the outskirts of Saigon in South Vietnam. None of them have had to fight Victor Charlie or the NVA yet, and most of the troops he saw haven't even seen combat yet.

"Where we going, Sarge?," Eric asked Sergeant "Bull" Montez, his squad leader. "Hell if I know, Private. Maybe we'll finally get to kill some NVA."

Sergeant Montez was big and muscular. He had a scar that went across his face. His gruff voice, 5-o-clock shadow, and lack of hair on his scalp made him even more intimidating to other troops, but Eric felt safe and confident under the command of a certified Bad-ass, a veteran of the Korea War.

Eric looked at his three other squad-mates: Corporal Carter Sheen, Private Nicole "Nix" Nielsen, and Private First Class Hans Hartmann. Sheen was the radioman, he had a light stubble, semi-bald hair, green eyes, light-brown skin, and he was fairly lean. Nix had Brown hair, hazel eyes, a cute smile, and hair a little longer than army standards. Eric wondered how Nix ended up here, on the other side of the world, and he also wondered how Hans got here. Hans was clearly not American. Hans had a German accent, blonde hair, blue eyes, long lashes, and well, he looked very German. An immigrant perhaps. Or a refugee, a child of a German family that fled during World War 2.

Eric and his Squad-mates looked like polar opposites of the man leading them, The Bull. As the helicopters were flying through the night sky of Vietnam, Nix noticed something strange.

"Sir! Why are we flying south? Isn't the fight up north?" Montez replied, "Nix, command never said anything about a fight." "Where the hell are we going, then? ," Nix whispered to herself.

Eric's curiosity got the better of him, and he broke his silence. "Hey, uhh, Hans," Eric called. "Yes, Eric?" , Hans replied.

"How did you end up in the Army?" Eric asked, "I can tell you aren't from America."

Hans exhaled and told Eric, "I'm from Austria. I moved to New York a few years ago with my family. I live close to an uncle of mine, Doctor Heinz Hartmann. Ever heard of him? He's a psychiatrist."

Eric paused for a moment, then asked, "I haven't heard of him, but he sounds pretty important. Why'd you leave Austria?"

Hans told him, "My uncle Heinz writes stuff about ego psychology, subconscious, and what not. I'm not too interested, but maybe it's because I haven't read his work yet. I have some of his books with me right now. Anyway, my family came to New York to start a new life. I wasn't doing shit, so they told me to enlist."

Eric then said with a happier tone, "Well, well, we're two of a kind: useless."

Eric and Hartmann laughed, Nix and Sheen chuckled, and Montez was still serious. "Hey! There's our LZ! Get ready!" Montez snapped.

The helicopter landed on a large base, that wasn't on any of their maps, and the five dismounted. It just so happened that a great deal was going on here, way behind where the front line was supposed to be.

"Why the hell are all these troops back here?" Sheen asked, and Montez replied, "We'll know soon enough, Corporal."

An officer approached Montez and the squad. She was taller than Eric, and even Montez, her hair was long and jet black, and her eyes were almost as dark as her hair.

She looked a little young to be an officer, but her posture, her straight face, and the way her eyes gazed on the five told them that she was definitely much more mature than she looked.

She told Montez, "Sergeant Montez, I am First Lieutenant Maia. I'm going to be your company's CO for this operation. Follow me to Installation F-7, and bring your squad. We're going to be briefed with the rest of the company."

"Yes, ma'am!" Montez replied. The squad quickly followed Lieutenant Maia to a large bunker and inside, they found the rest of their company already seated there, facing a platform on the far end of the structure. The five sat down on a bench, and Maia went to the front, and whispered to two other officers seated by the platform.

The two officers went on the platform and the whole room fell silent. The older and higher ranked officer, easily recognizable because his dress uniform was shinier and had more medals, not to mention his face had more wrinkles, began his briefing,

"Ladies and gentlemen, Eagle company. As all of you know, Apollo 11 landed on the moon last July. What you don't know, is this: by landing there and placing our flag there, we have sparked another war. You will be surprised when we tell you this, but I ask you to keep your comments of us being lunatics to yourselves. The lunar landing was seen as an act of aggression, and an act of war."

Maia asked during the officer's brief pause, "War? Against whom…sir?" The officer replied, "Against the Lunarians, my dear lieutenant. The moon people."

As the officer uttered these words there was uproar among the soldiers. Lunarians? Impossible! How can people live there, under our very noses, and in the vacuum of space? "ORDER!" shouted the younger officer. The company slowly became silent and returned to their seats.

The older officer began to speak again, "24 years ago, we uncovered many secret files from the Nazi Ahnenerbe headquarters in Berlin. Most of these files were detailed analyses and research papers about a civilization on the moon. This is when our government started escalating the space research program, and now, we're here. You will not be fighting commies. You will be fighting the Lunarians, up there, on the Moon. As I've said, we at high command knew of the existence of a lunar civilization years ago, but we never expected this. We never expected them to be advanced this much above our comprehension. I will tell you what we know: The Lunarians do not age, they are nearly immune to all diseases, and their medical, engineering, and military technologies are far superior to our own. Their numbers are small. Hopefully our troops can overwhelm them. Also, you will not only be fighting the Lunarians and their machinations. Since there are rarely any deaths in their race, any Lunarians killed would be a tragedy for them. If we kill enough of them, they will likely surrender or call for a truce. We have learned that the Lunarians have enslaved a humanoid race native to the moon. They are called Moon Rabbits. The Moon rabbits are intelligent as well, capable of using Lunarian technology. Most of their defence force comprises of these Moon Rabbits, and the Moon Rabbits accept Lunarian rule, because their way of living improves from it. High Command has already prepared for this many years before the Apollo landing. Now, we are ready to fight them. It's time to take the moon for ourselves, and to take the technology the Lunarians have been so selfishly hoarding for themselves!"

All this was….it was too much…too much to take in. In 6 hours, Eric, Nix, Sheen, Hans, Montez, Maia, and the rest of Eagle Company would be on a ship to the moon, to fight "Lunarians" and "Moon Rabbits."

But why? Eric couldn't understand. Would the Lunarians come here if we didn't go there? Given their limited information, there would be no need to; the Lunarians seem content there on the moon, and there's even talk that the Lunarians are humans that somehow left Earth for the moon thousands of years ago.

Whatever the case, we offended the Lunarians, and now the Earth has an excuse to send soldiers there to kill some bunnies and aliens. Eric thought of the US Expeditionary Force. He thought of Eagle Company. Montez' platoon. He saw his squad in his head. Montez, Sheen, Hans, Nicole. What if they didn't make it? What if they all died on the way there? What if we couldn't come back after landing. Eric broke down; he started to cry and hyperventilate. "Oh God, get me out of this mess!"

The waiting was over. 6 hours of waiting, tension, and nervousness was finally over. It was replaced by more hours of waiting, tension, and nervousness. "T minus 1 minute to launch," The speakers all over the base announced.

There were 10 hidden launch bases like this with 5 ships, each capable of carrying a company, or half a company with supplies, oxygen, and vehicles. The ships were obviously, very massive, and they didn't have much aesthetic appeal to them. They focused on practicality. All the ships had launch bays for troops to quickly disembark in case of an emergency, which was bound to happen; since the Lunarians would be shooting at them once they get close.

The ships' offensive and defensive systems were the best Earth could provide, though the high command suspects the Lunarian Defence Corps' gun batteries and ships will tear them apart in no time if they get too close. The speakers then announced, "Launch in T minus ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… THREE… TWO… ONE…. BLAST OFF!"

The ships all activated their engines at full power simultaneously. The ships began rocketing out of the Earth's atmosphere. Higher, and higher they went, the first 50 warships of Earth, the first batch of soldiers sent to the cold abyss of space, to fight, to die, to whatever end. There was no turning back now. The Lunar War has begun.

"60 seconds to landfall." The ship's monotonous computer voice announcer didn't help ease the tension at all. 60 seconds felt like an eternity for the troops, who have been uncomfortably seated on the ships for well over a day now. Lieutenant Maia stood up and got the troops ready.

"We're landing on Mare Traquillitatis in a few seconds! Make sure those helmets are secured tight. Watch your surroundings and stay cautious. Your helmets are prime targets. If those are punctured, you lose consciousness in ten seconds, and you are dead in two minutes!"

A whole lot of soldiers began nervously feeling their helmets.

Hartmann noticed that not all the troops had guns specially fitted for combat in the vacuum, "Hey, Sarge, do those M-16s even work in space?"

"Of course they do; why would we give them to you if they didn't work?"

Maia looked at the electronic countdown again, then back at her men. 30 seconds.

"Montez! I'm putting you in charge of First Platoon. You're taking point!"

Montez immediately replied, "YES, MA'AM!" Sheen nudged Hans, and asked him, "Hey, Heinz, why the hell are we taking point?" Hans, annoyed, answered, "I'm Hans. Heinz is my Uncle, and no, I don't know why we're first, but I bet it has something to do with Sarge being a bad-ass." Sheen sighed and said, "I don't want to be the first to be blasted to bits out here."

"Wait," asked Montez said to Maia, "How the fuck did the Russians not piss their pants when they saw our ships?

"I don't know Sergeant, but I was assured the cover-up was taken care of." She replied.

The ship was shaking violently as it made a rough landing on Mare Tranquillitatis, the area where Apollo 11 landed a few months ago. As the ship's bay doors opened, Montez, already standing ready to fight, ordered First Platoon to pile out.

"Move, move, move! We've got some Moon people out there waiting to get their asses kicked!" First Platoon quickly disembarked. A few other ships had disembarked as well. Many others were still in the space above, waiting for the first few to clear out and leave.

First Platoon of Eagle Company and a few other platoons from other companies were moving out of the landing zone to secure the area, and engage any resistance they found. They walked a good 5 minutes, and still, nothing. Montez' squad, as well as another squad, was ahead of the rest of the platoon. Hans was getting worried that they would be separated and ambushed. Montez saw one of the other soldiers going a little too far away from her squad.

"Sheen, get over there and tell Private Rikka to get her ass back here."

Sheen nodded and ran to Rikka, who was crouched down, looking at something in the distance.

"Rikka, get back down here!" Sheen ordered her.

Rikka ignored Sheen, and told him, "Hold on! Look at that! There are some blue lights in the distance! What are those?"

Sheen's face turned from nervous, to absolutely frightened. "GET DOWN, RIKKA! GET THE FUCK DOWN!"

He ran to her to push her down, when suddenly, two flashes of blue streaked toward them at an astounding speed and went through the Rikka and Sheen, killing them both instantly. Their blood could be seen by Montez and Eric floating in space.

"SHIT! WE GOT CONTACT!" Just then, A flash of blue near the squad, and explosion, and Eric lost consciousness.

"Eric! Eric! Wake up, motherfucker! We're getting torn apart here!" Montez shook Eric awake, and thankfully, Eric was alive, and uninjured.

He woke to the starry sky being lit up by trails of magnificent bright blue plasma, bullets, and missiles. He could see explosions in the distance. Mare Tranquillitatis. The landing zone was under heavy attack.

He could see the large ships being torn apart by the Lunarian plasma projectiles, and crashing into the ground. A soldier went to "SARGE! CALLAHAN! HEY! WE GOT MORE HOSTILES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIDGE! WE NEED TO—"

The soldier was shot in the helmet, and the bolt went through his head. The blood splattered all over the soldier's helmet; that was what was left of his head. Montez needed to get his troops back to the landing zone. There was no hope for them here.

All they've been doing was firing their guns blindly to where they thought the enemy was, while they were picking off his troops with accurate fire. Another mortar impacted the ridge where First Platoon was situated, hitting a squad of troops. There was a brilliant flash of blue, a vibration on the ground, and the light faded to reveal what was left of the squad: ashes, floating in space.

"We're getting out of here. Private Nielsen! Private Callahan! Supressing fire in that direction!

"Yes, sir!" Nix and Eric both replied.

They lay prone next to each other and began firing their guns at the opposite side of the ridge. A silhouette popped out and Nix fired at it. The silhouette spewed blood and fell down the ridge.

"I got one!"

Just then 4 more figures appeared, and began firing wildly at Montez' side of the ridge.

"Fuck! Nix, get down! A small explosion rocked the ground, and Nix was knocked back.

"NO!" Eric went down to Nicole to see that she was still alive, her suit still intact, but she was knocked unconscious. Montez barked his orders at the rest of the platoon to fall back, and saw Eric and Nicole.

"Private, let's go!" Eric nodded and picked Nicole's unconscious body up and carried her back.

As the platoon was running, the hostiles took pot shots at them. Montez' platoon had 40 soldiers on landing. 9 minutes later, he only had 7. They returned to the landing site to find it being pounded by Lunarian artillery fire.

Most of the ships were destroyed or too badly damaged to fly. The ships that were still airborne were firing missiles and cannons in the direction of the source of Lunarian fire. "Lieutenant!" Montez shouted as he entered the hastily assembled base on the landing zone.

"First Lieutenant Maia is dead, Sergeant! Most of the strike force is dead! We need to get the hell out of here!"

Montez asked the man, "Who are you!" The man told him, "I'm Master Sergeant Barney Nashorn! How's the situation out there, Sergeant?"

Montez then replied, "Uhh..we've got a few ships up there, but if we're leaving, it has to be now, before—"

Hans ran in and interrupted, "SIR, ENEMY TROOPS SPOTTED ALL AROUND THE LZ. THEY'RE CLOSING IN!" Montez and Barney quickly turned their attention to Hans. Montez asked him, "How many?"

Hans then said "Hell if I know, but they've got a lot more than us, that's for sure."

"Master Sergeant Barney, I'm going out to repel the attack. I can tell these bastards want to beat at us in close quarters. That I like. I want to see my enemy before I kill them." Montez told Barney, then turned to Hans and told him, "Hartmann, you stay with the Master Sergeant. If he decides to leave, go with him."

Hans shook his head and said, "Sir?..." Montez turned around and told him, "I have to save at least one of my men's lives today, Hans. Just don't forget about us."

Montez ran outside to find Nix conscious again. "Nielsen, can you still fight?" Nix replied, "Yes, sir! But, we're almost out of ammo!" Montez signalled Eric, who was nearby, and told Nix, "You and Callahan hole up in that Bunker and use the machine gun. I'm going to lead whatever's left of our troops against the moon-people's attack. Just then, A few small ships launched and made for Earth.

Montez ran to the base perimeter, and found all the soldiers there out of ammunition. The Lunarian artillery barrage has stopped. All the Earth's spaceships were destroyed, except the few that managed to escape.

The American troops saw one figure appear on top of a hill, followed by a few hundred more. Most of them had what appeared to be helmets shaped to house a head with rabbit ears.

A soldier commented, "Holy shit, the commander was right. Moon rabbits." Montez replied, "except that bitch in front. No big-eared helmet, shinier armour. That one's a Lunarian."

The "bitch in front" Lunarian drew a sword, and it looked like a high-quality Japanese Katana, though what was really special about it was the fact that the blade suddenly engulfed itself in a bright blue energy. The soldiers all gulped and knew that was going to hurt. Montez shouted, "FIX BAYONTES!" and the American troops attached their bayonets to their guns, while others just drew their combat knives.

This was it. It was the end for them. The Moon Rabbits behind the Lunarian drew their energy blades as well; some of them even sporting energy spears. The Lunarian Defense Force troops charged, and Montez ordered his troops to charge.

What should've been a melee that filled the air with the shouting and screaming of desperation, destruction and death, was a quiet but massive battle, silenced by the vacuum, and the cries of the doomed American troops were never heard.

"What the hell is going on out there, Eric? It's been hours!" Nix whispered, while breathing very softly to conserve oxygen. Eric looked back at Nix, and told her,

"I..I don't know. There's nothing on the radio chatter, and no one's come back. That can only mean…" Nix stopped him as she began crying, "No. It..that can't…no. No."

Nix was sitting against the bunker's wall, crying, as their oxygen levels reached critical levels, and all their comrades lay dead. Eric asked Nix, "where's your third oxygen tank?"

Nix shook her head and told him, "I gave it to Montez. He'd need more oxygen. He's fighting."

Eric sat next to Nix, and Eric told her, "We can make it. Here. Take some of my oxygen."

Nix rejected it, saying "No, Eric. You 'll survive this. You need it more than I do. You have a family. My family disowned me the day I joined the army. If I take that, we both suffocate. You still have time."

Then tears started rolling down Eric's eyes, "Nix, I.." Nix stopped him, "Eric, call me Nicole."

Another 20 minutes passed.

"Nicole, neither of us is going to make it. There's no way the second wave…will..make it..in time."

Nicole held Eric's hand, and told him, "No, but they will."

Nicole pointed to the outside of the bunker. There were Moon Rabbits looking for survivors. Eric held Nicole's hand tighter.

The two's oxygen was nearly depleted, but Nicole was in a more critical condition than Eric. "Nicole, is this it?" Nicole looked at Eric, and then told him, "Something…something in my gut tell me they aren't going to kill us…Eric…Thank you."

Nicole fell unconscious, and Eric followed soon afterward. The two slept, with the thought that it would be their last.


	5. Secunda, Chapter 2: Another Adventure

**Chapter 2: Another 'Adventure'**

"Your tea, Lady Remilia." Sakuya served Remilia her afternoon tea. Sakuya has been serving The Scarlet Devil, Remilia Scarlet, for 43 years now. Neither of them looked any older, though. Remilia still looks like a young adolescent girl, with her Red eyes, pale skin, and light-blue hair, but that's what happens when you're a vampire. She may be 483 years old, but she still looks and acts like a 15 year old girl.

Sakuya still looked like a young woman. That's how she looked like in 1942 when she first encountered Remilia. What a bloodbath that was. Well, you see, that's what happens when you have Lunarian blood. You don't age, or die from old age, or in, a Half-Lunarian's case, you age very, very slowly, and die at a very, very old age.

Sakuya had shiny silver hair, no doubt inherited from her Lunarian mother, and she had a long braid on each side of her face, with a ribbon at the end of each. She had blue eyes, and wore a maid's outfit most of the time. At first, she was disgusted by the fact that she had to wear it, being an ex-Nazi officer and killer and all that, but she learned to enjoy it.

After all, Sakuya would be serving Remilia for the rest of her life; that was the condition Sakuya agreed upon when Remilia made a bloody mess out of Sakuya's body, nearly ripping apart Sakuya's body. Remilia was so impressed by the fact that Sakuya managed to injure her, so she gave Sakuya the chance to live.

It's February 19, 1985. A few years ago the NATO and its allies were ousted from Vietnam, but strange sounds and rumours have still been floating around in the areas near American military bases. People talk about loud noises late at night and early in the morning. People say that they hear them launching rockets into space.

Remilia brought up the topic because she hears the noises frequently. Not that it interrupts her sleep. Remilia is a vampire; She's wide awake at night because she can't go out in the day without a parasol.

Just then another servant of Remilia's entered the room. "Miss Sakuya, a lady I met outside the front gate told me to give this letter to you."

Sakuya took the letter from the man's hands. "To me? Specifically, me?"

"Yes, Miss Sakuya." Sakuya was confused. Who could possibly want to send a letter to her? Could someone still alive know about her past? Her true identity? Sakuya shook these worried thoughts out of her head.

"Thank you, Antoine. You can go now." Antoine nodded, and left. He turned his head before closing the door and said, "We really need to hire a gate guard. Who knows what else could get in the mansion from that gate."

Sakuya nodded at him. Remilia smirked and told them, "I don't think that's a real problem. Only an idiot would try and break in here."

"Well, we can just introduce trespassers to your sister, milady. Problem solved."

Remilia sipped her tea, chuckled, and told them, "Please no, I don't want to be blamed for destroying another village."

Before Sakuya left the room, Remilia stopped her. "Wait..Sakuya…You've been working really hard for the past years. You deserve a break; take the rest of the week off."

Sakuya, surprised, asked her if she was serious. "Is this for real?"

Remilia rolled her eyes. "Of course it's real. I'm not pure evil, you know."

Sakuya grinned and thanked Remilia. "I'll see you on Monday, then? Thank you so much!" Sakuya changed into traveling clothes and packed some essentials: money, clothes, snacks, knives, and Luna Dial, her pocket watch.

Antoine noticed her as she left the mansion. "Hey, Miss Sakuya! Where are you going?"

"Lady Remilia gave me the week off. I'll see you on Monday! Bye!," Sakuya said as she walked past Antoine.

"What? Why doesn't she ever give me—never mind. Bye." The courtyard was empty, and plants were beginning to overgrow, the fountain was old and broken, and the gate was rusted. As Sakuya closed the gate, she said to herself, "And Antoine thinks not having a gate guard is a problem? I think a redecorator and a gardener would be more useful." With that, she turned around and started walking.

Sakuya examined the letter as she as walking. It was very plain, but seemed quite old-fashioned for a letter. It was indeed addressed to her.

The text on the letter, written in black ink: "To Izayoi Sakuya, from a friend." Sakuya wondered who this "friend" could be. She opened the letter, and found a map with directions, and a short note.

Sakuya read the note, "Sakuya. So, that's your name now? I presume that French Vampire was real, then, and you're her maid now? Heehee. Ooh, yes. I know who you are. But don't take that the wrong way. I want to help you, and there are things about you that we need to talk about. I can't risk writing my name on here. Wouldn't want anyone to find out who I was, right? I trust you, though. I figure when we finally see each other again, you'll come to trust me as well. The directions are on that map. I highly doubt anyone would be following you, or looking for you at this point, but keep the map away from anyone just in case. See you soon!"

The location indicated on the map was only a few miles from her location; it seemed to be a small, isolated house. "Well, I could use another adventure. Good thing I'm dressed and armed for the occasion. Something tells me I'll have to go somewhere and kill something."

She opened her bag, and took out some necessities: A machete, throwing knives, and the Luna Dial, Sakuya's time-manipulating pocket watch.

The watch still contained the blood that leaked into it when she fought Remilia 43 years ago. Remilia lunged at Sakuya's shoulder and some of the spilled blood seeped into the Luna Dial. Despite ruining the watch and making it slightly more difficult to tell the time, the blood in the watch seemed to be part of the manufacturer's design. Before the fight, Sakuya could only stop time for a few seconds. After it filled with blood, the watch could not stop time as long as it did before, but it allowed Sakuya to reverse, slow, or accelerate time for a few seconds as well.

After securing Luna Dial to a chain and placing it in her pocket, Sakuya continued on the road to the house where and unknown "friend" awaited her.

After an hours travel, Sakuya reached the house. The structure was bigger than Sakuya thought it was; most of it was concealed by the trees. The centre of the house was rounded and had a transparent dome roof; it was an observatory. There were 2 smaller structures connected to the observatory.

Sakuya knocked on the door. When the door opened, Sakuya was surprised to see who answered the door.

"Guten Tag," the man who opened the door was none other than Hans Hartmann, a survivor of Earth's disastrous first offensive against the moon. Sakuya, of course, didn't know that yet.

She was just surprised to see another European. Sakuya asked Hans, "It's been so long since I've spoken to someone in German. Your accent is Austrian, no?"

Hans then said, "Yes, I am Austrian. Please, come inside." Sakuya looked at him as he closed the door and told him, "I don't know you. Did you send this letter?" to which Hans replied, "Oh, no. It was your friend who sent that. She's up in the observatory. My name is Hans, by the way. Hans Hartmann."

"Hans, would you mind telling me who this 'friend' is?" Hans' looked at Sakuya with a strange look on his face.

"You mean you don't know? This whole operation is more secretive than I thought it would be."

Sakuya remained silent and now even more confused, as the two climbed the up observatory's staircase. When the two reached the top, Sakuya first noticed the large telescope that was pointed to the sky, and then she looked at the two women drinking tea at the table.

Sakuya's expression turned from confusion to total shock, and she started breathing heavily and took a few steps back, almost tripping on Hans' foot. The first woman Sakuya noticed had very long silver-white hair that was braided at the back, and grey eyes. She wore a blue and red dress with constellation designs on it. She appeared to look like a woman in her early 30s, but with perfect skin; she indeed looked quite young and beautiful.

Sakuya, however, knew her secret. She was ageless. She was a Lunarian. Sakuya only knew her because she was her commanding officer for a short period during the Second World War.

The only word Sakuya could utter was: "E-Eirin?" It was her. "How the hell did she escape Berlin in 1945?" Sakuya asked herself in her head. She knew for a fact that Eirin was present during the Battle of Berlin.

The white-haired woman chuckled and said, "Yes, it's me: The one and only medical genius from the moon, Yagokoro Eirin! I'm surprised that you were so shocked. Knowing you, I thought you'd figure out it was me. Oh, and I haven't introduced you to Yukari. She's the one who helped me escape, and the one who brought the letter. Sakuya, this is Yakumo Yukari."

"It's nice to meet you, Sakuya." Yukari said in a kind, polite voice.

Yukari had dark golden eyes, long blonde hair, and wore a purple dress, and a pink mob cap with a thin red ribbon tied in front. She looked a little older than Eirin, but she was still surprisingly beautiful.

"It's nice to meet you too, Miss Yukari," Sakuya said with a smile. "You helped Eirin escape Germany? The War Trials?" Yukari giggled.

"Well, if that's how you put it. I also had you and Eirin removed from Earth's history. Why do you think there are no records of the two of you anywhere?"

Eirin went straight to the point, "Alright, Sakuya. I know you have a lot of questions, but leave them for after I explain this to you. All of you here know my secret: I am a Lunarian. "

"What you don't know is that the rusty old telescope there is actually modified with Lunarian technology. I can see what's really going on up there. I'd bet you'd all like to know what really happened to Apollo 13. But I digress, there's a war going on up there, Sakuya. Hans can testify; he was there with the first wave. 1969. The first US force that landed on the moon suffered 99.9% casualties. "

Eirin continued, "I found Hans in his escape pod, unconscious. I took him and all the things there, except the other man, who was dead. Someone would be looking for this pod, and I needed to make sure whoever found it after me would be convinced that there was only one man in this pod, and he was dead. Hans is safe now.

I presume he's listed as "Missing in Action", or "Killed in Action" by now. Hans, why don't you tell her what's been happening on Luna?" Hans explained everything to Sakuya: The hidden bases and launch facilities, the tanks and weapons refitted to work in the vacuum, and the effectiveness of the Lunarian Defense Force, among other things.

Sakuya was silent for a while after he was done explaining. She had trouble believing that the Earth was a war with the Moon.

She finally spoke up, "Alright. But what does this have to do with me?" Eirin smirked and told her, "Of course. I needed someone with your skills: Combat, Stealth, and that unique piece of Lunarian technology you're carrying. I've seen what you can do, and I know that you've gotten better at it. I've been speaking to contacts, gathering information, and digging into the Lunar War, and what's happening at the Lunar Capital."

"And?"

"And I've discovered two things, Sakuya. The humans just want Lunarian technology. The Apollo 11 crew went to the moon to speak to the Lunarians about at least sharing medical technology, and hopefully war technology, so they could destroy the Soviets and prevent a nuclear holocaust. The Lunarians' selfishness and the humans' greed started the war. There is no bad side here. Second, The Lunarians have been performing extremely painful and horrible experiments to the Moon rabbits. I worked so hard to get them to be treated fairly in our society. It's about time we end this war. I want you to go to the moon. Signal to the human army the location of the Lunar Capital's tertiary entrance. When the humans attack, you slip into the 'research' facility marked here on the Lunar Capital map. Once inside, kill all the Lunarians inside, and free test subject #224. You can free any moon rabbit and human prisoners you find, but #224 is a priority. 224 knows you're coming for her, and I've organized an escape plan for you."

Sakuya stopped Eirin, "Wait! Eirin! How do I—"

" – get to the moon?" Eirin interrupted. "We'll give you a false identity. Read the dossier over there, then take those dog tags and clothes. Yukari will get you to the launch facility on Okinawa."

Sakuya changed into the army clothes, put on the dogtags, and stored her rations, knives and machetes in the rucksack. "Lance Corporal Kate Hallard. What happened to her?"

Yukari smirked and said, "She'd be going to Okinawa for launch, but let's just say I saved her from a gruesome death on the moon. Let's go, Sakuya."

Eirin told her before leaving, "Sakuya, when you go AWOL on the moon, the human forces will investigate and realize that you're not really 'Kate,' so you may have to kill a few of them. It's a sacrifice you'll have to make. I recommend keeping Luna Dial close before you get to the Lunar Capital. Wouldn't want to lose that in space now would we?"

Sakuya asked, "You'll be here when I'm finished?"

Eirin laughed and told her, "No, definitely not. We'll probably never see each other again, but Yukari will pick up #224 when you're done. Remember, Sakuya, your success is imperative to ending this war!"

"How exactly will this end the war?" Sakuya asked Eirin, who replied, "A lot of Lunarians dying on Lunar New Year doesn't seem like much to you, does it? Well, for them it's going to be a tragedy, so kill as many Lunarian soldiers as you can while you're there."

Yukari created a 'gap' through space and time, and went halfway in it. She offered her had to Sakuya and she, reluctantly, took it. Sakuya wondered how Yukari was able to do that; how did she get this incredible power? Yukari then said, as if reading Sakuya's mind, "If you're wondering how I got this incredible power, well, I'm a really old yokai. Believe me, this gets boring after the first few thousand years."

Yukari pulled Sakuya through the gap, and they surfaced in Okinawa, outside the launch facility.

"Wow. You trust Eirin that much. You'd just do this for her? Well, I hope you succeed. I gotta go. See ya!" Yukari vanished into the gap, and it closed as she disappeared. Sakuya walked to the gate, and the gate guard let her through after an ID check.

"Wait….Lance Corporal Hallard!" the guard shouted. Sakuya stopped, and held her breath. She began to sweat. She turned and faced the guard, who smiled told her, "You're gonna be late for your flight. Better hurry your ass up. I can tell you're nervous. Don't worry, all the troops are."

Sakuya exhaled deeply let out a sigh of relief. She went to the barracks and quickly got into her Spacesuit uniform. She stored her knives and machetes, and put in extra oxygen packs and food in the suit's built-in compartments. Finally, she put the Luna Dial in the safest compartment, and put on her helmet.

Sakuya blended in perfectly with the other soldiers; they were all wearing their spacesuits, and everyone's hair was inside the hat that came with the inner layer of the suit, so no one could see her silver Lunarian hair.

After a while, the countdown started, and the ships were launched into space. Sakuya set her suit to wake her in a few hours, before they got to the moon. She fell asleep, despite the violent rocking of the ship.

The suit woke Sakuya up precisely at the time she set. The commanding officer was talking to the platoon commanders. When they were done, the commander of Sakuya's platoon approached them, and told them, "We'll be landing on Mare Crisium shortly. We're not engaging the Lunarians yet. We'll settle down at the barracks there, and then we'll get a briefing from the main base at Mare Tranquillitatis. There'll be a major offensive very soon, and they say we'll launch a massive counterattack after the next Lunarian bombardme—"

The ship rocked violently before the sergeant could finish his sentence.

"TROOPS! We're under Lunarian attack! Belay the landing! We're jumping down there!"

The company commander shouted to the rest of the ship, "Make sure your helmets are secure! We're opening the hatch!"

The commander pulled a lever, and opened the ships hatches and landing ramps. There were blue plasma streaks lighting up the vacuum of space, and rockets and bullets streaking in the opposite direction as a response.

On the moon's surface, Sakuya could see the full extent of the Earth Forces' Lunar base. All across the Mare, bunkers and fortifications dug into the moon rock. They've managed to maintain and hold this area of the moon for nearly 10 years. Impressive, given the circumstances.

"Shit! Watch out!" a soldier shouted as a streak of plasma brushed passed the ship's hull. "Those things are faster than anything I've ever seen! How the hell is the ship supposed to dodge that!"

"Shut up and jump, men! Kate! Shark! Travis! Go, go, go! JUMP!" With that, Sakuya jumped first, and she was falling slowly. They were being pulled in by the moon's weak gravity. "JUMP! JUMP!"A few soldiers were hit by the Lunarian plasma fire as they descended slowly to the moon's surface. Sakuya struggled to get down as fast as she could. When she did, she didn't really get hurt. There was no time for the company to rest; it was time for immediate counterattack. Sakuya, was at first dazed and confused: Missiles, guns, plasma bolts, but no sound. It was a different war here. It was dead silent most of the time. Sound can't travel through space. She could feel the vibrations on the ground; that was the only way she could hear things that weren't on her comm.

In the silent chaos of the battle, Sakuya slipped into an empty bunker. She took out a map that Eirin gave her, which showed her the Tertiary entrance. To her surprise, the entrance was in the direction of the battle. "Fuck." Sakuya left the tent and ran towards the battle.

She could hear shouting on the comm. "Kate! Where the fuck are you?" Sakuya climbed up the edge of the Mare, and into the Lunar 'highlands' where she saw soldiers and tanks, supported by a battleship in the air, advancing uphill to the source of the bombardment. Sakuya regrouped with her squad and listened to the comm.

"Victor Papa Two is in position." "We read you, Victor Papa Two. Charlie Echo Seven reporting ready."

"This is Battleship 'Ferocity' ready to fight to the end." "Romeo Foxtrot Four is ready for war!"

"This is Red Eagle. All callsigns ready. Overlord, we wait for you go."

"This is Overlord. All callsigns: commence counterattack! "


	6. Secunda, Chapter 3: Ace of Spades

**Chapter 3: Ace of Spades**

"Overlord, this is Juliet Tango Four! I have a visual on Lunarian artillery battery! Request strike from 'Ferocity'!" Plasma fire rained down on the Earth troops as they charged on the open highlands of the moon.

Earth tanks moved in columns, firing at Lunarian positions and troops, while supporting infantry moved in behind them. The battleship 'Ferocity' was above, providing fire support and acting as an eye in the sky.

Overlord was operating from Earth, using satellites and feed from the ships to communicate. The disadvantage of this was that their responses were delayed a few seconds. Juliet Tango Four was the callsign for the company Sakuya was joining.

They advanced with their tanks ahead of the main force and their attack route led them to the artillery battery, and exactly where Eirin had directed Sakuya to go on the lunar map. It was too good to be coincidence. Eirin's plan was much more intricate than Sakuya thought.

Overlord's response came in: "Negative, Juliet Tango Four. Triple A in that area will tear Ferocity apart. Stand down and await reinforcement."

"That's Bullshit!" exclaimed the radioman before a plasma bolt punctured the top of his helmet.

"Shit! I'm losing air!" The radioman lost consciousness, after he and another soldier tried to plug the hole. It was no use.

"Leave him! He's as good as dead!" the sergeant told their medic. The lieutenant furiously punched a rock and picked up the radio, and plugged it to his comm to speak.

"Red Eagle Actual, all our tanks are knocked out or destroyed. We're losing more men to Lunarian fire. What's your ETA! We're getting killed out here!" Red Eagle replied immediately, "We're taking a detour. Overlord says Lunarian triple-A is a priority. Sorry Lieutenant, you're on your own. Give 'em hell, JT-4."

The Lieutenant dropped the radio and assigned another soldier on it to keep them posted. "You heard the man. This could be it for us, so give 'em hell!"

The soldiers of Juliet Tango Four got up from cover and returned fire at the Lunarians, some of them running out at them and getting killed.

"Get your asses down! I didn't say run into enemy fire! We'll take this artillery piece, or die trying, hooah?" The troops responded instantly, "HOOAH!"

"Kate! Shark! Travis! Check out that gully and see if you can flank them!" Sakuya almost forgot to follow Shark and Travis down the gully. "Damn it, I'm Kate. Almost forgot that. I'm not dying here. I'm not dying here."

The three followed the path of the gully, when Travis stopped them. "Wait. There's something here. He looked behind a tall rock, and was greeted by a Lunarian energy sword to the throat. He fell to the ground, lifeless, without a sound. Two moon rabbits popped up from their hiding spots.

The one that killed Travis charged at Shark, and the other one charged at Sakuya with a downward slash of its sword. Sakuya deflected the slash with her gun, which split in half as a result. Sakuya kicked the moon rabbit in the stomach and it staggered back.

Shark fired furiously at the moon rabbit that killed Travis. The rabbit took a few shots, and then finally died. Sakuya drew her machete and blocked another slash by the rabbit, this time by hitting the rabbit's sword arm before it hit. She stabbed the rabbit in the chest, and kicked it down, while pulling her machete out of it.

Shark fired at it one more time to make sure it was dead. Sakuya took the moon rabbit's gun. "Damn Kate, you've got some moves. Let's go." Sakuya and Shark got to the end of the gully and climbed up; they were directly behind the Lunarian troops.

"Lieutenant, this is Shark. We're right behind the troops and the artillery battery." There was static for a moment.

"Private Shark! This is Sergeant Teeves. The Lieutenant's K.I.A. Poor bastard got his head chopped off by an energy sword. Red Eagle neutralized the enemy triple-A, and are en route. _Ferocity_ is gonna pound down the arty battery. When the smoke clears, we move in and kill any and all sons-of-bitches that manage to survive. ETA 12 seconds."

Shark looked at Sakuya, and she nodded to him. "Roger that, Sarge. Kate, get down!" A few seconds passed, and _Ferocity_ was directly above them. It began firing all its underbelly cannons at the Lunarian positions. The ground shook from the bombardment.

When the smoke cleared, Sakuya and Shark got up and pointed their guns at the smoke. A figure came out of the smoke, limping. It wasn't a friendly. The figure had a golden Lunarian combat suit, without the rabbit ears. It was a Lunarian. Sakuya ran towards the Lunarian but the Lunarian hit her in the abdomen with his fist. Sakuya staggered, and then pulled a dagger out from her suit. She slashed at the Lunarian, who blocked her arm, and kicked her in the shin. Sakuya responded by throwing the knife, and there was nothing the Lunarian could do to stop the dagger from entering his throat.

He fell to the ground, but was amazingly, still alive. The Lunarian attempted to reach for a gun nearby. Sakuya pulled the dagger out of the Lunarian's throat, exposing the Lunarian to space, and the Lunarian began to suffocate in the vacuum. He lost consciousness before he reached the gun.

Their blood was red, just like hers. Just like Earth humans. The Lunarian's suit powered down, and the tinted visor turned transparent. She saw his face: clean white skin, no blemishes, and silver hair. The rest of the troops had a look at him.

He looked just as human as the next guy. That's what they are, really. They're still human. That means they aren't invincible. They were mortal, like the troops on the moon. This was the first real Lunarian kill to be confirmed. All the other Lunarian kills were only assumptions and rumours from snipers and artillery barrages.

But here was a Lunarian in the flesh, dead. The Lunarians are mortal. They can bleed. They can die. They are human. They aren't invincible after all. The Earth can win this war.

"What do you think of that?" a soldier remarked as he saw a metallic circular marking on the side of a large hill. Sergeant Teeves took a look at it. The markings looked like Lunarian characters: a mixture between ancient Chinese and Japanese, with some edits and new characters.

Teeves then told them, "It was probably a design on one of these arty pieces, but it could be something worse. Don't touch it." Sakuya took a look at the marking. She opened her hand a little over it, and the characters began to glow a faint blue.

That was it. That was the entrance, and it could only be opened by a Lunarian. Sakuya didn't understand how it worked; Lunarians and Earthlings were both human. It probably had to do with how the two subspecies evolved on different habitats.

Sakuya shook off these thoughts. Leave that medical talk to Eirin. But how would Sakuya open the door without blowing her cover. She'd be taken for interrogation without a doubt. Sakuya then remembered the dead Lunarian. She walked back to the Lunarian's dead body, and dragged it to the marking. Teeves saw what she was doing.

"Corporal Hallard, what the hell are you doing?" he asked. Sakuya paused a moment, then said, "Opening this door…sir. I know some Japanese. I think the symbols read 'open' but I could be wrong."

Teeves called his troops, "Step back, men. Kate, this is all you. I won't be responsible if you blow yourself up." Sakuya dropped the Lunarian and placed his palm on the symbol.

The symbol glowed bright blue, then faded. The ground under Sakuya began to shake. The metallic circle split in two and the whole hillside opened up to reveal a wide, downward path. Strangely enough, it was empty, but it went down, into the moon. "My God…." Teeves, Sakuya, Shark, and all the other troops who saw it looked in awe at the entrance to Luna's interior.

"Overlord! Overlord! This is Juliet Tango! Respond! Overlord, please respond!" Teeves was desperately calling Overlord on the comm. Overlord responded, "We read you, Juliet Tango. What's your status?"

Teeves said as loudly and clearly as he could, "We have found 'Ace of Spades', repeat, we have found point 'Ace of Spades.' After a brief period of silence, Overlord responded again. "Juliet Tango 4, this is Overlord, requesting confirmation: you said you found 'Ace of Spades?'

"Affirmative, Overlord. This is it. We're sure of it." Another few seconds of silence passed before Overlord's next response came in.

"Juliet Tango 4, this is Overlord. Good work. We are rerouting 6th cavalry battalion, 4th infantry division, and 12th Engineers to 'Ace of Spades.' When Red Eagle Actual arrives at your position, take what's left of your company and Red Eagle 6 and 7 into the entrance. Your objective will be to enter _Lunaris Urbis. _The rest of the task force will join you in taking the city once the Lunarian counter-attack is routed. Consider this your promotion. Godspeed, Lieutenant Teeves."

"Hey, Sarg-, uhh, err, Lieutenant, did you know the troops of the first few waves back in '69 kept shouting at each other whenever they were under fire? Guess no one told them sound doesn't travel through space." Shark tried to lighten the mood a bit with conversation. Everyone was nervous. Who knew what horrific machinations awaited them when they reached the gate to the capital.

"Damn, that must've been rape on the ears. Shouting into your comm is like shouting at everyone's eardrum directly," remarked a soldier.

Teeves didn't say a word. Sakuya didn't say anything either. Another soldier joined the conversation "You know, in the west, there are folktales about a man on the moon, and in the east, they say that there are rabbits on the moon. I guess they were both right. " Shark shook his head. "You don't say?"


	7. Secunda, Chapter 4: Lunaris Urbis

**Chapter 4: Lunaris Urbis**

They were moving deeper into the moon. The path was paved by an unknown material, and was lit by some lights that glow an ominous blue. The path was amazingly wide. Two tanks could fit side-by-side. Lieutenant Teeves and his 30 men, along with two tanks from Red Eagle, were headed straight towards what the Earth coalition named _"Lunaris Urbis",_ The Lunar Capital. They moved ahead of the task force, which was assembling at the entrance.

They were to send reinforcements soon, but the majority of the force would stay on the surface to combat the Lunarian counter-attack that would surely arrive.

Despite heavy losses, the task force managed to annihilate the Lunar Defence Forces stationed in the highlands north of _Mare Crisium._ But the Lunar Defence Force is prideful and relentless; they will not allow the humans to revel in their victory. They would be coming, in force.

"Hey, Shark, what the hell does _Lunaris Urbis_ mean anyway?" Shark couldn't stand the questions anymore. "Do I look like a scholar to you? I don't know! That's the name of the place we're going to!" Sakuya sighed and finally spoke, "_Tsuki-No-Miyako._ That's what the Japanese call it. Capital of the moon."

Shark looked at Sakuya and spoke to her, "Gee, Kate, didn't know you read so much. This war's already getting to your head, eh? I can tell you've been acting a little different, but don't hold it against me; what man wouldn't be driven to insanity fighting this goddamn war?"

Sakuya no longer spoke. She could feel they were close to the entrance. There it was: Another gate, A metal wall that reached all the way to the ceiling blocked their path. There were no holes, and no gap between the wall and the cave ceiling. The other side was sealed from the vacuum; The soldiers assumed that there was air on the other side. Breathable, liveable, air.

On the wall were battlements, with a bunker directly above the gate. Teeves, told the troops to stop. Second squad, climb those battlements and see if you can find a gate switch!

There were no Lunarians or Moon Rabbits on the battlements. It was clear, and the switch was in plain sight. Could they have taken the Lunarians by surprise for once? One of the soldiers activated the switch; it wouldn't be long before they find out.

The gate opened, slowly. The soldiers could see the air inside escaping; there was breathable air inside. After all the air escaped, the gates finally opened up. 2 American soldiers went up front, while the others were behind the tank. The 2 soldiers on point opened their eyes wider than they ever did. As the door opened the 2 soldiers were physically ripped apart by Lunarian plasma guns.

There were Moon Rabbits and Lunarian soldiers waiting for them on the other side. Luckily for Teeves and his men, the tank shielded them from the plasma barrage. The tank wouldn't last for long though, and they had to act fast.

The tank returned fire with its machine guns, killing a few Moon Rabbits. Teeves contacted the tank crew, "Red Eagle 6, get in there and use your cannon! We can't get a good shot from here!"

The tank started moving forward. A few soldiers were hit by plasma as the tank moved forward. "Lieutenant, they're melting through the hull! I need some help here!" Teeves issued his men forward. They stormed through the gate as Red Eagle 6 fired its cannon.

What they entered was a staging and preparation area. Opposite the gate they entered was another gate. This gate was much wider and taller, and was made of shining silver. This gate could only be opened if the oxygen and air pressure in the staging area was adequate. That gate on the other side was the real entrance to the city.

Red Eagle 6 fired its cannon at the support beams that held the catwalks above in place. A large portion of those catwalks fell and smashed many Moon Rabbits and a few Lunarians. The American troops advanced and returned fire at surviving hostiles.

A few soldiers were struck by plasma bolts from above; there were more of them on the catwalks. Shark climbed up a ladder and got onto the catwalks. He fired his weapon at the Lunarians, but his shots missed their marks.

The Lunarians turned to him and Shark hit the deck as they began shooting their plasma weapons at him. Sakuya then ran out of cover and threw a sticky grenade directly below the Lunarians. The grenade exploded and ripped the catwalk in two; the Lunarians slid down and fell to the ground, where the Americans made short work of them with their bayonets.

The room appeared clear now. Teeves had men guard the outer gateway switch. He ordered the outer gates closed. When those gates were sealed tight, air started flowing into the staging area. The soldiers' suits detected stable and breathable air.

Most of them put their helmets up to breathe the air. This way they saved oxygen and felt more alive. It didn't matter having the helmet down anyway; plasma bolts will still go straight through.

"Juliet Tango, this is Tranquillity Base. How is it going on your end?" Teeves immediately replied to Tranquillity's message. "We're at a staging area outside the gates of the city. We'll have to move our troops into the city in small groups; the staging area is between two gates: the city gate, and the outer gate. One has to be closed for the other to open, and it takes about 10 seconds for the staging area to depressurize and 10 seconds for the outer gate to open. It'll take time to get a sizeable force into the city. We'll wait for reinforcement before we advance into the city."

It took a few seconds for Tranquillity Base to come up with a response. "Negative, Juliet Tango. We need you in the city now. Secure the area around the main gate and wait for reinforcements there. We don't want the Lunarians to massacre the troops as the gate opens. Echo Charlie is en route; they will join you shortly. Just secure the other side of that gate!"

"Roger that, Tranquillity. McClaine! Open the city gate!" The gates opened slowly and majestically. When fully opened, the soldiers had their first look at the Lunar Capital. It was a sprawling metropolis, like nothing they've ever seen before. In the distance were tall skyscrapers that far surpassed the ones on earth, in both height, and design. Closer to them were shorter buildings, many of them designed like traditional oriental homes, but made with better materials, and despite their traditional look, it all seemed very advanced.

There were buildings designed like ancient temples and palaces. The city was like a perfect blend between traditional oriental design and advanced technology. It was beautiful. "Shit, I don't even know what to say," remarked one of the soldiers. "Screw your heads back in, men. This place is still full of people that want to kill you."

With those words, Teeves managed to get everyone focused again. When they looked up, they saw the night sky. The stars. Some unknown technology allowed the Lunarians to gaze at the heavens as if they were right there, even if they were deep underground.

The saw flashes in the air: they were in different colours. Fireworks, of course; it's February 20, 1985: Lunar New Year. In their astonishment, they didn't realize something was wrong. The streets were empty. Not a single hostile to be seen. Not a single hostile to be…seen.

"SNIPER!" There was a brilliant flash of light from a distant building. In that moment, an American soldier was blown in half, long before the sound of the shot was heard. "MARCUS! NO!" Shark shouted as he ran to his comrade. Teeves grabbed him, and all the soldiers entered the buildings for cover.

Teeves, Shark, and James hid in an alley behind a structure. "James, did you see that bastard?" Teeves asked James.

"Yes sir, the flash came from a Chinese-looking tower, the really tall one, at 10 o'clock from where Marcus was hit. "

Shark handed James his sniper rifle, but as James started moving, he was struck by the Lunarian sniper, and his innards splattered on Shark and Teeves. "What the fuck was that? No penetration! How did that hit him?"

Another soldier started talking on the comm, "Lieutenant, I saw the shot. Same position. There's no way we can hit him from here. It looked like he guided his shot somehow.

Teeves then replied, "They can guide their sniper shots? That's bullshit!"

"Negative, sir. Kate says she definitely saw that plasma bolt curve."

Teeves called the tank, "Red Eagle 6, requesting fire support." As Red Eagle Six rolled along the street, the soldiers gave coordinates to the tank. "Red Eagle Six firing."

The tank fired one round at the tower, and the top half of it blew up. "Looks dead to me." As they cleared out the street and regrouped, the gate opened again, and Echo Charlie joined the remnants of Juliet Tango, bringing some Armoured Transports and Tanks with them.

Teeves called out to Shark, Sakuya, and the other survivors of his unit. "Alright, Juliet Tango, we're merging with Echo Charlie. Our objective will be to take—" Things were only getting started.

Plasma artillery started falling on that empty part of the city. One of the shells hit an armoured transport directly behind Teeves, Shark, and Sakuya. The explosion sent the three flying. Sakuya fell on her side, and was beginning to black out.

As she struggled to keep herself conscious, she saw Shark, impaled by a piece of metal, land beside her. He was dead.

She saw Teeves stand up; firing his gun wildly as plasma bolts from hostile infantry began raining on the soldiers.

Teeves ran for Sakuya. A flash of blue, and his head was no more.

Sakuya, got up, and remembered her objective. The prison. #224. She got up, removed her communication equipment, and ran for cover. The comm was filled with chatter from inside, and up on the moon's surface.

The last transmission she heard from above sent a chill down her spine: "Echo Charlie, this is Colonel Duclair. Scouts have sighted the Lunar Defence Force's counter-attack. We've spotted at least sixteen Light and Heavy Assault Walkers, and unknown amounts of infantry. They've already started their bombardment. 6th cavalry battalion and battleship 'Ferocity' will engage the Lunarian counter-attack to buy us time and get more troops into the city. Overlord thinks we can end this war by capturing their leadership, but things aren't looking pretty here. Good look, Echo Charlie."

Sakuya cautiously moved through alleyways and through abandoned buildings as she drew closer to the prison. She was well behind enemy lines now. At this point she removed her heavy space suit, and changed into proper combat gear. She didn't need the space suit here where there was fresh air, and she could steal a Lunarian suit later. She took a break in an alleyway where no Moon Rabbits or Lunarians were passing. She sat against the wall, and reflected on everything that just happened.

Why did she get dragged into this so easily? All these soldiers were going to die. What the hell are all these people doing, massacring each other like that? How would she do this alone? How would she single-handedly break into a prison and rescue someone? What chance does she have against these Lunarians, who have rifles that guide their bullets to the target, and bullets that move faster than the mind can comprehend?

Even with Luna Dial, the task was Herculean, no, it was worse than that. This was lunacy. Sakuya knew that legend told of the full moon's power to induce lunacy. Many legends are false. Why did this one have to be true?


	8. Secunda, Chapter 5: Rolling Thunder

**Chapter 5: Rolling Thunder**

"This is Red Eagle Actual. All tanks of the 6th cavalry form up. We're charging that counter-attack head-on. Form an attack line. Alright boys, we're not on a suicide mission to make ourselves look good; we're on a suicide mission to buy our boys some time AND make ourselves look good. All callsigns, report in."

The 6th cavalry battalion formed a battle line, driving their metal coffins as fast as they could to engage the Lunar Defence Force. With them was the battleship, 'Ferocity.' Mechanized infantry units would move on the flanks of the enemy and take out the artillery that's pounding 'Ace of Spades' while the tanks and battleship engage the main force in the centre of the highlands to divert their attention away from 'Ace of Spades' and their artillery batteries. In the distance, smoke trails could be seen, as the tanks drew closer, the colossal silhouettes of Lunarian Heavy Assault Walkers became visible.

"All armour, form up and hit these sons of bitches hard! Show 'em what the 6th Cav can do!" Tanks fired their cannons at the Lunarian walkers. The first shots harmlessly bounced off the Heavy walkers' energy shields, but the next barrage impacted the walkers' hulls.

The Lunarian walkers unloaded a hail of plasma fire at the 6th cavalry's tanks. "Evasive action! Keep shooting! _Ferocity_, take out the Heavy Walkers when you see their shields down. We'll handle the light walkers." Battleship Ferocity moved into position and began its barrage of the Lunarian Walkers.

"This is Skull Crusher three; I have a visual on Lunarian tanks advancing to reinforce their walkers." Red Eagle Actual redirected half of the 6th Cavalry to engage the Lunarian tanks.

The walkers and the tanks clashed. It was like a horse cavalry charge against elephants. The Heavy Walkers crushed tanks under their powerful legs, while tanks fired at the vulnerable joints of the heavy walkers, while the light walkers killed the tank crews attempting to escape knocked out tanks.

The Lunarian tanks caught up to the battle, and their silver and chrome coloured hulls were shining in the sun as blue plasma from their cannons streaked toward the 6th cavalry's dark-grey and green tanks. The Earth tanks answered with the cold steel of their Armour-piercing shells. It was a Lunar New Year's fireworks display unlike any other. The highlands were filled with the twisted metal and molten steel of Lunarian and Earthling armour.

The soldiers around 'Ace of Spades' could see the battle: Flashes of yellow and blue, red-orange explosions, Ferocity and its massive guns trading blows with Lunarian Heavy Walkers.

Ace of Spades was under fire from Lunarian artillery. The Earth Coalition's artillery couldn't fire back at the Lunarian artillery; they were well out of range. The 12th engineers managed to bolster point Ace of Spades' defensive capability. Anti-tank guns and mortars were placed and trenches were dug to keep troops less exposed to artillery and gun fire.

Colonel Duclair was sending as many soldiers as he could into the Lunar Capital, in the hope that with a large portion of the Lunar Defence Force committed to this counter-attack, the 4th infantry would be able to overwhelm the resistance in the Lunar Capital. What the Earth coalition didn't realize was that all they have done up to this point have only led them ever closer to annihilation; victory was never in their grasp, and the Earth coalition was about to realize that.

"This is Ferocity. We are falling back to provide cover for Ace of Spades. 6th cavalry has been wiped out. No survivors. Enemy losses are substantial but most of the Heavy Walkers are intact, and they still have a few tanks."

Colonel Duclair sighed and put his head down in respect for the 6th cavalry battalion. "Rest in Peace, you crazy bastards." They were next. This was it. They'd make a stand here. They have a small chance with Ferocity in the sky, at least.

"Sir, scanners report a massive unknown object approaching. It's airborne sir." Spoke too soon. At that moment, there was a great white and blue flash.

The Ferocity exploded in a fiery inferno, and its hull fell to the moon and joined the mass graveyard of the highlands. The flaming debris of the Ferocity managed to destroy a number of Lunarian tanks. As the sky above the moon cleared, the Earth soldiers lay their eyes on a most terrifying sight: A Lunarian Battlecruiser.

Large, and elegant in design, it was very much unlike the ugly bulky looking ships of the Earth forces. It was curvaceous and almost artistic, if not for the terrifying arsenal visible on the Battlecruiser: It was bristling with plasma cannons, and it had such a powerful shield that it was almost visible to the human eye, unlike the walkers' shields, which were near invisible.

The battlecruiser was emitting a strange, faint red light from the bow of the ship. By this point, the walkers stopped advancing, and the artillery stopped firing. It was completely silent. All the Earth soldiers went up to see the horrifying sight of the battlecruiser, and then the battlecruiser's faint red light turned into a vivid and bright red.

Many soldiers stared directly at the fascinating light. A few seconds later, they fell to the ground, hands held tightly on their helmets, screaming, and writhing on the ground, uttering gibberish.

They became totally helpless, and useless. They all went insane from staring into the light. Some of them blindly fired their guns before falling to the ground like the others. This was lunacy, literally.

The red light turned healthy men into helpless lunatics in mere seconds. The full moon somehow caused a large number of Earth soldiers to slowly fall into lunacy, but here was a weapon that channelled that strange power and concentrated it to accelerate the effects.

After a minute, the red light turned faint again. Lunarian and Moon rabbit soldiers marched through the defences of 'Ace of Spades' with no resistance; everyone had gone completely insane.

They massacred all the Earth soldiers there and began their advance to the place where the Earth first desecrated Luna: Mare Tranquillitatis; Tranquillity base.


	9. Secunda, Chapter 6: Red Eyes of Madness

**Chapter 6: Red Eyes of Madness**

Silence. Deafening Silence. She couldn't hear a sound. The Lunar Capital fell silent. Every step she took would echo through the street. Sakuya felt like she was out in the soundless vacuum of space. The silence was enough to make tears trickle down her face. They were all dead. She was going to be dead, but she had to try. The prison had no guards outside.

Sakuya just walked through the entrance. Even the prison was designed artistically. It was a fortress, but a beautiful looking fortress nonetheless. The front door was locked tight. Sakuya climbed up the prison using a stairs on the outside. She found a vent to climb into, and was in the prison.

She took out a sheet with the prison's blueprint, given to her by Eirin, and navigated through the vents to what was supposedly a bathroom close to test subject 224's cell.

She broke the opening on the vent, and dropped down. The bathroom was empty. She looked around. Almost the entire interior was white and very clean as well. Sakuya heard voices outside: Lunarians.

She peeked out the door, and saw two Lunarians in lab coats. They were observing something through a glass window. Sakuya took the Luna Dial on her left hand, and throwing knives on her right hand.

The two Lunarians turned around when they heard footsteps, and were greeted by knives to the neck and face. Immediately, two guards came out from behind pillars and fired at Sakuya.

Sakuya pressed Luna Dial's first button, and time itself was stopped for everyone. Everyone, except Sakuya. Sakuya threw 2 knives at each of the guards, and then slid down to avoid the plasma bolt that was stopped a few inches from her face.

Time resumed at that moment, exactly 5 seconds after the button was pushed. 5 seconds for Sakuya. It was an instant for the guards, whose shots had missed and had knives in their skulls. Sakuya looked at the screen beside the window. She translated the Lunarian text, and it said: 'Test Subject #224, Lunatic Red Eyes.'

he took a look down at the window, and saw a young female Moon Rabbit, with long light-purple hair, and she was wearing white prison robes. She saw what had happened above, and tied a light blindfold over her red eyes. She walked, slowly, to the microphone, and said, "I'm ready. Get me out of here."

Hearing this, Sakuya pulled a switch near the screen, and the cell floor of #224 went up like an elevator until it was level with Sakuya. The glass window split open from the middle, and the Moon Rabbit girl walked out.

"I can see from this blindfold; don't worry, but you have to go first. I'm weak after going through all their experiments. I'll tell you which way to go. Sakuya nodded, and 224 directed her through the corridors, slowly, but surely getting to the exit, avoiding patrols on the way. "I memorized their patrol patterns to plan for the day I'd be rescued, but when they find me missing and those scientists dead, they'll raise the alarm, and I don't think we can sneak past them after that.

As they were making their way through the cells, one of the prisoners caught Sakuya's attention: This one was actually alive and conscious. And it was an Earth human.

Sakuya opened the cell, and talked to the man, "Hey, get up! I'm setting you free. We're escaping."

The man looked at her and replied, "No. I can't leave Nicole. I can't leave her here on the moon."

Sakuya sighed. "Where is she?"

The man shook his head and told Sakuya, "Don't you understand? She's dead! And I could've saved her if I gave her my oxygen! Why did she refuse it? I wish I knew. 16 years. 16 years in here. I've been doing nothing but regretting my decisions for 16 years. That's right; I know how long I've been here. Those bastards put a clock up there that displayed how long I've been here, and they used the Gregorian calendar too. Fuck them all to hell."

Sakuya held his shoulder. "Don't dwell on the decisions you've come to regret; they only make your next decision harder. Now, please get up. Don't you want to see Earth again?" With that, the man stood up.

"Alright. Eric Callahan is coming home." Sakuya handed Eric the Lunarian gun she had earlier.

"Are there any other prisoners besides you?" Eric again shook his head. "They're all dead. I'm the last one alive here. Nicole suffocated before we got into the city. Everyone else was killed before we were captured."

The alarm finally sounded as they were moving through the prison blocks. Sakuya opened the door that led to the lobby room before the exit. When the door opened, they were greeted by a dozen Lunarian guards that were pointing their guns at them.

The Lunarian captain told them to put their hands in the air and hand over #224. The moon rabbit girl nodded at them, walked forward, and pulled her blindfold off. The guards all stared at her red eyes that were still bleeding from horrendous experiments.

The guards fired a few shots in random directions as they quickly lost their sanity. Sakuya pressed the second button of Luna Dial to slow time and pushed Eric and 224 down to avoid the stray plasma bolts.

She threw a barrage of 10 knives at the guards, and when time resumed, 10 guards were killed, and Sakuya was already behind the other two, machetes drawn. She hacked the two guards apart with her machetes before they could react.

Sakuya used the hand of the Lunarian Guard Captain to open the exit gate of the prison. 224 told Sakuya and Eric never to look directly at her eyes, as she blindfolded herself again.

224 directed Sakuya through the city. This time, it wasn't so silent. Sakuya could see smoke in the distance, and hear distant gunshots. More Earth Coalition forces had arrived, possibly fighting in desperation, as they were trapped between the Lunar forces in the city, and the ones that entered 'Ace of Spades' after the counter-attack.

"My name's Reisen, by the way, so you don't have to call me by that horrible number anymore."

Making their way through the city, Eric noticed a few dead coalition troopers.

He took their communication equipment to listen in on what was going on. "This is bad. They're attacking Tranquillity. It sounds like a lot of men are dying. We must've made them really angry, getting this far, and on their New Year too."

Reisen led them to a secure door, which opened by itself. The three went down a few flights of stairs, silently, and reached an elevator room. They got in and went down the elevator.

When they reached the bottom floor, the Elevator opened to reveal a spacecraft hangar and two moon rabbits greeted the three with a gesture that they were friendly. Reisen told them that she could communicate telepathically with other moon rabbits.

These two helped open the doors and secured the ship. The ship was about the size of two Chinook helicopters.

Eric couldn't believe something like this could fly in space. Also in the hangar were a few dead Lunarians, killed by the two moon rabbits there. Reisen advised Sakuya and Eric to put on Lunarian vacuum combat suits, in case anything went wrong with the ship.

The Elevator opened again, and a squad of Lunarians came out, guns blazing. One of the moon rabbit traitors was hit and killed instantly. The other managed to pick up his weapon and fire at the Lunarians, but he was shot as well.

Reisen was hit and fell to the ground, bleeding. Sakuya hit the third button of Luna Dial this time, and time went in reverse for 10 seconds. Steam and sparks came out of Luna Dial; this button was the most dangerous and potentially the most powerful.

Sakuya wouldn't be able to use Luna Dial for a while after reversing time, so nothing had to go wrong after this. When it resumed, only Sakuya knew what would happen next.

"The Elevator! Get to cover!" Immediately, the two Moon rabbits picked up their guns and got behind some boxes. Eric pointed his gun to the elevator as well. Sakuya pulled the pin of a grenade, and threw it as the elevator door opened.

Eric and the two moon rabbits fired their weapons at the Lunarian soldiers in the elevator. The Lunarians ran out, and a few of them were killed by plasma fire. Sakuya's grenade exploded, and killed the survivors. Reisen and Eric got in the spacecraft.

Sakuya talked to the two Moon rabbits that helped them. "Why'd you help us?" she asked. One of them replied, "We were contacted by Eirin. We also told her about Reisen, and what the Lunarian 'Scientific Division' is secretly doing to Moon Rabbits. Life is good here, but we can't stand having our own kind treated like that. We can't go with you; now, hurry, before—"

They turned around and saw an armoured hand holding on to the edge of the elevator shaft. The Lunarian pulled himself up: He was wearing a black Lunarian combat suit with a gold trim. He drew his sword as the two Moon Rabbits fired at him.

The Lunarian deflected the plasma bolts with his sword. His reflexes and speed were amazing. He cut down the two Moon rabbits with a flurry of sword attacks.

Sakuya saw that Reisen was still trying to start the spacecraft's engines, so she drew her machetes and charged at the Lunarian. The Lunarian turned off his blade's energy so he wouldn't cut Sakuya's blades.

He put his pride over his objective; he wanted to fight on an even footing to humiliate Sakuya even more. Sakuya hacked her machetes at the Lunarian, while blocking his blazing fast slashes and cuts, but the Lunarian was too quick. He disarmed Sakuya, but Eric got a shot at him, and allowed Sakuya to run into the spacecraft and closed the hatch before the Lunarian could get to it. Reisen immediately took off and left the hangar. Eric turned to Sakuya and asked her, "What the hell was that?" Sakuya was still catching her breath.

Reisen spoke up, "That was a Lunarian Blademaster. There are only a few of them. I'm surprised she survived a close quarter duel with him."

Their spacecraft manoeuvred out of the moon's interior through a hidden hangar door that was left open by the moon rabbits. The spacecraft passed over Mare Tranquillitatis; there was nothing but death there. The Lunarian Battlecruiser was laying waste to Tranquillity base.

The hot plasma was melting the base structures, and any soldiers still unlucky enough to be alive. They say being burned alive is the most painful thing a human can experience. This must be true, as it is already painful to see someone being burned alive.

These men were being melted into nothingness by extreme heat. The Battlecruiser spotted the rogue spacecraft and began firing shots at it.

"I'm done sightseeing! Gun it!" Eric exclaimed as he saw the Battlecruiser's plasma streak over their ship. Reisen accelerated the spacecraft and set a course straight for earth.

The Battlecruiser detached a couple of fighter craft to chase down Reisen's ship. Sakuya saw that their ship had a manned turret.

"Eric! Can you get up that ladder and shoot those fighters?"

Eric stood up immediately and climbed the ladder into the gun turret. He put his finger on the trigger and let loose a plasma barrage on the fighters. The two fighters returned fire with their plasma cannons.

"Reisen, take evasive action!" Reisen nodded and made the ship dive. The two fighters followed and Eric kept firing and managed to hit one in the cockpit. The Lunarian fighter spun uncontrollably in space. "That was for Nicole, you bastard!"

The other fighter did a roll to dodge Eric's shots, and fired its plasma cannon. Their ship was hit, and the ship's controls began to malfunction. Eric hit the engines of the other fighter and it blew up in a bright blue explosion.

"And that one was for Earth, motherfuckers!"

Eric exhaled deeply, then went back down and strapped himself to a seat. Without looking at the two, Reisen talked to them. "We've escaped. I can get us to Earth for sure, but I'm telling you now, we're going to crash. I can't fly this thing properly. Not after taking that hit."

Sakuya then asked her, "Do you think we'll survive?" Reisen put her head up for a moment. She was thinking. "Hmm. Most likely. This ship will probably survive the impact. With our suits and the systems of our seats, we should be fine. Where do I land?"

Sakuya marked the landing area on her map and gave it to Reisen. It was a remote area somewhere in Japan. The spacecraft began shaking violently and the outer hull began burning up as it entered the atmosphere.

Reisen did her best to slow the ship down for landing. The ship descended, and Eric was slowly beginning to black out. Sakuya was resisting the g-forces better, but she was beginning to lose her vision. The ship slowed down enough, and Sakuya was able to see again. Eric was unconscious. The ship levelled out and crashed in a small lake. Luckily, the lake was shallow.

Reisen opened the top hatch of the ship, and helped Sakuya carry Eric out of the ship. They rested at the shore of the lake, and out of nowhere, Yukari appeared and walked towards them. "Welcome home!"

Sakuya was relieved to see Yukari. She was relieved to be back on Earth. Eric soon regained consciousness, and smiled, knowing that he was back on Earth. He kissed the ground, closed his eyes and breathed Earth's fresh air for the first time in sixteen years.

Yukari turned to Reisen and told her, "My girl, I'll take you to your new home. Don't worry. Eirin will take care of you." Yukari reached into her dress and pulled out a silvery cloth. She reached out, offering the veil to Reisen, who was surprised to see a Lunar Veil in the hands of Yukari.

"This…"

Yukari nodded, and said, "I know. Please take it. It's been modified to take you to a different place. You'll forget all the pain, all the torture, all the blood. You can't go back to Luna; not for a long time. You might as well forget, so you won't regret."

"Right," Reisen muttered, "Th-thank you," she said as she tightly grabbed the veil. Reisen and Yukari slowly disappeared into silvery particles similar to feathers, taking them to a place unknown to Sakuya.

After a minute, Yukari returned and told Sakuya, "Eirin thanks you, and bids you goodbye. Like she said, you'll probably never see her again. I can take you home if you want." Sakuya smiled and said to Yukari, "I still have the rest of the week off. Could you take me to Kyoto?"

Yukari smirked and replied, "Of course I can take you there, my dear. And you…Eric, right?"

Eric nodded.

"I don't think going back to the United States is a good idea. You'll want to go into exile." Eric nodded again, and told her,

"I can't say that you're wrong, with my government and all that stuff. Where do I go?"

"Well, you can stay at the abandoned observatory. Your friend, Hans is also living in exile there."

Eric, surprised, stood up and asked, "Hans? Hartmann? He's alive? That's great." Yukari then opened a gap again, and told him to step inside.

Eric looked back to Sakuya, "Thank you for saving me Sakuya. You gave me my life back. It doesn't matter if I can't see my family anymore. I'm back on Earth thanks to you. I'm home. Goodbye."

Sakuya smiled and waved goodbye as he entered the gap. Yukari's face turned a little less happy and more serious. "Sakuya. I must warn you about something before we go."

"What is it?"

"It's the Lunarians. They can only travel to the Earth on Full moons. Congratulations on ending the Lunar War. A Lunarian princess will be secretly meeting the world leaders to discuss a treaty to end the war on the 7th of March. She'll no doubt have an escort. And they'll be looking for you while they're here." Sakuya nodded. "What about the ship?" she asked. Yukari smiled again and told Sakuya, "I'll take care of it. Now go. You don't want to waste your week off, do you?"

"Wait, Yukari. What was that cloth you gave Reisen?"

Yukari saw no harm in explaining, "Sakuya, that was a Lunar Veil. It's a very old and inefficient way created by the Lunarians millennia ago to travel between Luna and Terra, what we now call the Moon and the Earth, but Eirin modified this one to travel between the Land of Illusion, and modern Earth. One loses much of his or her memory and spirit in the process. Thankfully, my powers overcome the Veil's, and I can use it without much effort or consequence. As for Reisen…she doesn't need those memories."

"I see. That makes sense. Land of Illusion?"

"You'll learn everything else in time. Just enjoy your week off."

"Alright. Thank you, again, Yukari."

The two said their goodbyes and Sakuya entered the gap to Kyoto.

A week later, Sakuya returned to the mansion. She saw at the gate a young Chinese looking woman, with long, straight, scarlet hair that was braided similar to Sakuya's braids, and wearing an olive-green Chinese dress with a white blouse underneath, as well as an olive-green cap on her head. Sakuya approached her and asked, "Hello. Who are you and what is your business here?"

The Chinese woman replied, "My name is Hong Meiling. I heard there was a mansion out here that nobody ever goes to. I thought it would be a nice place to look for work. I'm an immigrant from China."

Sakuya nodded and asked her, "What can you do?"

Meiling smirked and said proudly, "Well, I can cook a little, clean a little, and—" Sakuya interrupted her, "Woah. We have enough cooks and cleaners already. I'm sorry, but—" Meiling interrupted Sakuya, "AND most importantly, I'm a Kung Fu master!"

Sakuya, her mouth still open, thought for a moment, then said, "I bit of advice: If you're applying for a job, maybe you should start with the things you do best. Anyway, we're looking for a Gate Guard. Do you want to take the job?"

Meiling had a big smile on her face. "Yes! I'd love to take the job!" Sakuya put her hand on Meiling's shoulder.

"OK, let's get in the courtyard and fight." "WAIT, WHAT?" Meiling said with a very surprised look on her face.

Sakuya rolled her eyes and told her, "Well, I have to know if you're telling the truth. Don't worry; I've fought 'blademasters' with just a pair of machetes, and I can handle myself in a hand-to-hand fight."

Meiling nodded and said, "OK, if you really have to." Sakuya opened the gate, and the two walked side-by-side into the courtyard.

"I like your braids by the way," Sakuya told Meiling. "Thanks."

The sun set as the two duelled in hand-to-hand combat, treating the two with a beautiful view of the moon. "Ever wonder how it's like on the moon? Don't you wish you could go there and see it up close?" Meiling asked Sakuya.

"No."

**End Luna II.**


	10. Tertia, Chapter 1: Secrets

**Luna III: Gensokyo**

A Touhou Fanfiction

By Diego Magallona

**Chapter 1: Secrets**

It was a quiet March Sunday morning in Japan. At the end of a dirt road that led out of a nearby town was an old observatory, composed of two rectangular one-story living quarters and workspace connected by the cylindrical dome-roofed observatory proper at the centre. Here lived two war veterans: Eric Callahan and Hans Hartmann. Eric Callahan was a 35 year old American from Washington, had short hair and had a thin beard. Hans was a 37 year old Austrian from New York. He had short blonde hair and no beard; he shaved often.

These two weren't ordinary War veterans though. They were veterans of the most secretive war in history. So secretive, in fact, that it isn't even in history. The two were veterans of the Lunar War: where the Earth Humans fought the Moon Humans, or Lunarians, in a bloody war which had been raging for 16 years. Eventually, the Earthlings reached the Lunar Capital and managed to kill a good number of Lunarians. The Lunarians also found that one of their 'military experiments' had gone missing. After the subsequent Lunarian counter-attack that wiped out all the Earth forces on the moon, the Lunarians contacted the Earth's leadership and proposed to end it with a truce instead. Both sides have lost enough. That truce signing will be taking place on the next full moon, for the Lunarians can only descend to Earth on Full Moons.

Eric woke up and went to the kitchen/dining room to find Hans already finishing his coffee.

"Eric, you slept in again. Do you know what day it is?"

Hans asked as he raised his eyebrow looking at Eric.

"Eerrgh. I give up. When is it?" he replied.

Hans put his coffee down just so he could put his palm on his forehead.

"Damn it. It's 10:09 AM, March 3, 1985. Don't you have somewhere to be?" Eric twitched and ran to the table.

"Yeah, I do. I'm going to miss the mass as the village," Eric said hurriedly as he devoured the waffles on his plate, and went back to his room to change.

Hans sighed, "You're welcome."

Hans heard a knock at the door. He took the last sip of coffee, got up, and starting walking to the door.

"This better not be Koishi again; I'm tired of teaching her psychology," he muttered to himself. Hans opened the door and was greeted by the smile of a young-looking, silver-haired, blue-eyed woman, wearing pants and a polo shirt.

"Sakuya! It's good to see you!" Hans expressed. "It's good to see you too, Hans," she replied. "I'm just here to remind you two to keep an eye on the sky. We have four days 'till the Full Moon. That Lunarian telescope still works right?"

Sakuya asked as she pointed to the top of the observatory. Hans then told her, "Of course, Sakuya. I watch the sky every night. If you have a look upstairs, you'll see all our research. We've uncovered some…secrets."

All of a sudden, Eric ran out of his room, waved at Sakuya, then ran out the observatory and to the nearby village.

"Where's he going?" Sakuya asked Hans, who replied,

"The church at the Village down there only has one Sunday mass a week. Strange, right?" Sakuya raised an eyebrow and asked Hans, "You don't go to church?"

Hans smiled and replied, "Obviously not, but anyway, do you want some coffee?" "No, thank you. Let's just get down to business."

Sakuya and Hans climbed up to the observatory, where the Lunarian telescope was located, facing the moon. The Observatory floor had one long plastic table on it, with three plastic folding chairs beside the table. There were bookshelves along the walls, curved, to match the structure of the observatory. The table was piled with books, papers, and folders with Hans and Eric's research materials.

"Here," Hans told Sakuya, "Let's start with this. I found it in one of the folders Yukari found when she 'saved' Kate Hallard: In 1972, the US Expeditionary Force uncovered a saucer-shaped spacecraft with the German and Nazi party flags on it. Here's a picture."

Hans showed Sakuya the picture of a crashed Nazi flying saucer on the moon's surface. Sakuya looked at the picture for a moment, and then said, "Yes, I am aware of the Nazi Space Program, but I assure you, they aren't the 'Lunarians' in question."

Hans took back the photo, and replied, "I know that. The ill-informed will probably think that the Lunarians the Earth is at war with are Nazi refugees, but this picture counters all arguments in favour of that theory."

With that, Hans took another photo out of the folder, this time showing the interior of the Nazi spacecraft.

"The saucer's capacity is four. There are four seats, and barely any cargo space to bring anything capable of building what the Lunarians allegedly have. Also, all four seats in the photo are occupied. The Nazi astronauts didn't even make it out of their seats. See the plasma burns on their suits? The Lunarians opened fire as soon as they crashed. Sakuya…I need to ask you…were there any more flying saucers that were launched?"

Sakuya thought for a moment, trying to recall. The painful memories of her past that came back to her made it difficult to remember.

"Well, the SS Ahnenerbe weren't very involved with the Nazi Space Program, but they were aware of the launch sites. There were two: One in the Arctic, and one in the Antarctic. The facility in the Arctic Circle was raided and destroyed by British SAS forces before any process could be made, and the facility in the Antarctic Circle was found in 1947 totally frozen as a result of a power failure, along with what was believed to be all of inhabitants. One ship was missing from the hangar. Now we know where that went."

Hans put the second photo back in the folder. "Well, that doesn't put us any closer to where we want to be. This was probably our best lead for us prepare for the Lunarian incursion on the 7th. Everything after that is fantasies, myths, and legends. Did the Ahnenerbe know anything about Lunarian travel to Earth?"

Sakuya replied by shaking her head, and then said, "I know they can travel here by spacecraft easily, but from what I hear, the UN was assured by the Lunarian Council that the rest of the world will not know of their arrival, their presence, their departure, and even their existence. I don't know how they'll be able to do that with spacecraft. Even their advanced spacecraft can be detected entering the atmosphere. You really don't have anything else?"

Hans sighed, then said to Sakuya, like I said, only Myths and Legends, but this is the best one: Have you heard the 'Tale of the Bamboo Cutter?' It's probably the best of all the ancient legends regarding the Lunarians." Sakuya nodded, then Hans continued, "Well, most of the story isn't important as far as I'm concerned, but the ending of the story…I believe there is a connection. Here, roughly translated:

'_Rising like the morning mists that lie along the lake the white company passed slowly to the top of the mountain of immortality, the sacred mountain of Japan._

_On, on, up through the still whiteness of the moonlight, the long line passed, until once more they reached the silver gates of the moon city, where all is happiness and peace._

_Men say that even now a soft white wreath of smoke curls up from the sacred crown of the mountain, like a floating bridge to that fair city far off in the sky.'"_

Sakuya thought again…Mountain of immortality...was this the key? _'Like a floating bridge to that fair city far off in the sky.'_ Hans interrupted her thinking, saying,

"Do you think there's some sort of portal or 'bridge' to the Moon Capital?"

Sakuya looked at him and replied, "Yes, I do believe so. Don't hold back on the legends. The simple-minded terms and mentions of magic don't make them untrue. The ancient people who wrote these things did not have the words and knowledge we use to describe the world today. It could very much be true."

Sakuya took a look at Luna Dial, her pocket watch, and told Hans to 'keep watching up there,' pointing at the sky, and to 'keep searching down here,' gesturing at the research work.

"I have to go, Hans. I'll need to cook lunch for the mansion." Hans nodded goodbye to Sakuya as she climbed down the Observatory steps and went out the door.

"Four days left, and we're chasing after legends. I hope she's right."

Sakuya returned to the mansion after visiting Hans and Eric. The Scarlet Family Estate, now known as the Scarlet Devil Mansion, was a property that belonged to a rich family in renaissance France. Today, the Scarlet Devil Mansion is in Japan, transported using powerful magic, and is still owned by the Scarlet Family, or what's left of it. The mistress of the mansion is Remilia Scarlet; a vampire who has been living in the mansion since she was born. She, along with her younger sister, Flandre Scarlet, were both ordinary humans once, until they contracted Vampirism through vampire bites. Today, Remilia and Flandre are the last of the Scarlet Family, but they still have many servants working for them.

The Mansion was surrounded by a brick wall, which had two gates. The back gate was inaccessible to most; it was a locked escape gate that led into the forest. The front gate was made of metal, painted black, and had quite a royal look to it. The mansion itself was mostly coloured scarlet. It had many rooms and few windows, though quite a number of the windows were sealed shut so sunlight could not enter. One unique feature of the mansion was the clock tower that was part of the mansion. It wasn't very tall, but it was the tallest part of the mansion. At the front of the mansion, right behind the main gate, was a courtyard with a broken fountain in the middle. Behind the mansion were gardens of roses.

As Sakuya walked to the main gate, she noticed the gate guard, Meiling, fast asleep on her chair. Sakuya sighed and tapped Meiling on the head, to no avail; Meiling was still fast asleep. Meiling starting talking in her sleep, "Mhhhm….Sakuya…Hmmpmh..."

Sakuya, slapped Meiling in the cheek, and she fell from her chair and woke up.

"Whoa…what happened?" asked Meiling as she got up.

"Having some sweet dreams there, China?" Sakuya asked. Meiling, still sleepy, asked "Whoa, what? How did you…uhh..." Sakuya put her hand on her forehead and said, "Meiling, you're the gate guard. You're supposed to guard the gate, not sleep in front of it!"

Sakuya opened the gate and went into the mansion to cook lunch.

The day dragged on as normal, and since Sakuya's mistress, Remilia, the master of the mansion, was asleep, Sakuya decided to go down to the mansion's huge library to try and help Hans with his research. Sakuya opened the double-door of the old library in the basement, and was greeted by the smell of dusty old books, and dusty old air. The library was windowless; no sunlight entered it. The conditions of this library were good for preserving its vast collection of books, but not very good for the conditions of the librarian, who had been staying in the library for nearly a hundred years, doing almost nothing but reading and writing books.

The Scarlet family's library was vast, with full bookshelves that nearly reached the high ceiling; one could walk around their library and become lost very easily, whether it meant losing your way in the maze-like library, or losing yourself reading and reading books forevermore like the librarian. Sakuya made her way down the library's stairs, and yelled out, "Patchouli? Where are you?"

There was no answer. Sakuya made her way through the library, and reached a clearing, a wide open space surrounded by very tall bookshelves in all directions. In the centre of this clearing was a table, where a woman wearing lavender pyjama-like dress and a night cap. She had very long purple hair and eyes, and she had multiple ribbons tied around her hair.

"Patchouli, there you are. I need your help with something," Sakuya told the woman, who was occupied reading a book, "Hello? Are you alive?"

Patchouli put down her book and replied, "You know, Sakuya, I'm a witch. I die differently than humans." Sakuya sighed, and said, "But you can contract diseases, and this library isn't good for your asthmatic condition at all."

"I get it Sakuya, my health this, go outside that. Oh, don't worry about it. Worry about your work, and I'll worry about mine. Now, what is it you needed help with?" After explaining her predicament, Sakuya told Patchouli about how the story of the Bamboo Cutter may connect with the inevitable Lunarian arrival on Earth. Patchouli was familiar with the story, so she instructed Sakuya to stay on her table while she looked for the right book. Patchouli returned with a large book of folk tales from all around the world. "As large as this library is, there are too few books concerning Japanese folk takes here. Most of these are western translations and interpretations. Let me see…" Patchouli started flipping through the book's pages until she found "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter."

It was about the story of a girl, named Kaguya-hime, who was found as an infant by a bamboo cutter, who raised the girl as his daughter. The girl, Kaguya-hime, grew to be a beautiful young lady, and many men from all over Japan came to court her. Kaguya did not want to leave her father and mother, so to discourage the men, she gave them impossible tasks. Even the Emperor himself could not have Kaguya as his wife. One night, Kaguya was looking at the sky, crying. Her father asked her why, to which she replied that she missed her true home greatly. She revealed to her parents that she was not of this Earth, but a princess from the moon, and that soon she would have to return home. When the emperor heard of this, he placed hundreds of guards at the bamboo cutter's home, but on the full-moon, a strange bright light blinded all the guards, and the Lunarians appeared in "chariots," took Kaguya after she said goodbye, and let her drink of the elixir of immortality. Before they rode back to the moon capital, she left some of the elixir for the emperor. The company of Lunarians ascended to the moon, where the silver gates of the moon capital opened for princess Kaguya. The emperor would not take the elixir of immortality, for without the princess, there was no point in living forever. So the emperor had his army climb the great mountain of the Suruga province and burn the elixir of immortality. It is said that even now, smoke rises from the mountain, the elixir eternally burning. The emperor hoped one day, the eternal smoke coming from the elixir would reach the moon capital and Kaguya herself.

"And, that's about it," said Patchouli, closing the book. "So, we've had our storytime. What now?" Sakuya was still confused. How would this help her? "Strange. This translation is a little different from the one Hans showed me. The other one didn't mention the army climbing a mountain and burning the elixir. Do you happen to have any books that delve further into this?" Patchouli thought for a moment, and then replied, "Sorry. If I had any of those types of books, I would've gotten them straight away. I assume you are looking for the mountain?"

Sakuya nodded, and then said, "Yes, that's right! Do you think the so-called 'mountain of immortality' and the 'great mountain of Suruga' are the same place?"

"I'm afraid I don't have enough information to confirm your assumption. I'm just as clueless as you are. I believe you know more than I do regarding this matter. I haven't been outside this library since you asked me to move the mansion to Japan."

Sakuya sat down and sighed. "Damn it. I'm not getting anywhere with this…thanks for the help anyway, Patchouli. Can I get you some tea?"

"No, thank you. You wouldn't have the time to do that, anyway. It's almost sunset; the mistress will be waking up soon."


	11. Tertia, Chapter 2: Compromise

**Chapter 2: Compromise**

At the Lunar Capital, things were just about as hectic as the Earth. The moon princess, Watatsuki no Toyohime, was preparing for her arrival on Earth. The climatic last battle of the Lunar War ended in tragedy for both sides: Majority of the Lunar Defence Corps' moon rabbit soldiers were killed, as well as a large number of Lunarian soldiers and citizens. In addition to that, a conspiracy to assassinate the princess was uncovered when Lunarian Royal Guards investigated a prison that was attacked during the battle. It just so happened that the leader of the Lunarian Blademasters, who was also the leader of the Lunar Defence Corps, had kidnapped the pet moon rabbit of the Watatsuki sisters, and performed horrendous experiments on the rabbit, so that when returned, the rabbit would be brainwashed and kill the princess. As a result of this, Princess Toyohime had the Blademasters disbanded, its leader executed, and her younger sister, Watatsuki no Yorihime, reassigned to lead the Lunar Defence Corps. Of course, the results were much worse for the Earth: The Earth Expeditionary Force was completely annihilated during the battle. There were no apparent survivors; they were wiped from existence.

The Earth bluffed about sending another wave, and the Lunarians fell for the ruse. In actuality, the Earth could not afford the men and materials to continue the war if it went on like the final battle. The Lunarians, however, were more affected in terms of morale rather than materials; they felt that they could not lose any more precious Lunarian lives to the attacks of these impure Earth humans. And so it was agreed upon by the United Nations and the Lunar Capital that the war would end. The peace treaty would take place on the full moon, when the Lunarians could descend to Earth.

The Watatsuki sisters were alone in a meeting room in the Lunar Palace. The walls, the furniture, and everything else in the palace was extravagantly elegant, a perfect mixture of the old Asia's arts and the new world's technology. Toyohime, the princess, wore a blue dress over a white blouse, and had long, golden hair, and golden eyes. Yorihime, the younger sister, wore a similar outfit, though her dress was red. Yorihime had light blue hair, tied in a ponytail with a yellow ribbon, and brown eyes.

"Are you sure everything is going along just fine? I don't want to be assassinated, at least not down there, where my pure blood will be corrupted by the filthy earth." Toyohime was getting paranoid. This was her first time in a peace talk. The last time the moon took full military action was when an army of youkai attacked the Lunar Capital roughly a thousand years ago. She wasn't princess back then, but she knew that the Lunar forces just destroyed them, and then continued living in peace. This time was different; this was a formal war, which was almost exactly the same as any war, but further complicated by unneeded treaties and nonsensical politics. Instead of fighting until destruction, two sides fight until they don't want to fight anymore and then bombard each other with ridiculous 'peace conditions' until an agreement is made. The Lunar Capital had no experience with this. How could they? There is only one civilization they could possibly have this kind of war with, and that 'filthy' civilization is the one they're about to talk to.

After thinking thoroughly and enduring pokes by her older sister, Yorihime finally answered, "Yes, I do believe you will be fine. Nobody on Earth who knew of your arrival would even dare come close to you. You can defend yourself, sister. Just because you are a princess does not mean you should be weak, or seem weak. You've laid waste to their armies. If anything, they should fear you."

Toyohime smiled, then said to her, "Thanks for the advice. Anyway, can we go through the plan for the full moon again?" Yorihime spread a number of papers and maps concerning their plan for the peace-talks. "Sister, we do not want the Earthlings to suspect anything, so instead of making you appear out of nowhere, you, the ambassadors, and your guards will be taking the royal stealth ship to the site. It still fits within the conditions of your arrival, as the site is secure, and only the best optics and sensors can detect your ship as it approaches. All of the Earth's facilities housing these technologies have been seized by their governments to prepare for your arrival. Using the ship gives them a good reason to believe that only you and your escorts arrived on Earth, and will make the Earthlings cross out the possibility of other means of transit between Earth and the capital." Toyohime nodded in approval as Yorihime paused.

"After your landing, the watchers will all keep their eyes on the sky for anything else from then on, which will let me and my men infiltrate the planet with much more ease. While you have your peace treaty, we will use the gate to the mountain summit and from there, search for your pet rabbit, if she's still alive, the Half-Breed, and maybe, if we're lucky…Eirin."

The sisters both nodded at each other. They both understood the plan. They were about to leave the room and have some tea, but Toyohime stopped, and asked, "Sister, what is the strength of the forces you are bringing with you?" to which Yorihime replied, "I will send a vanguard of Lunar foot soldiers through the gate first to scout the area and ready the summit for my arrival. After that we will transport our main force of a hundred royal guards, and me. We will then begin our search. It won't take long with our tracking equipment."

Toyohime, curious, asked, "How exactly does the tracking equipment work?" Yorihime smiled, and then answered, "It's quite brilliant, actually. Anyone that has ever stepped foot on the moon capital will have some moon dust stuck on them. Some of it is so fine and pure that it will never fall or wash off from a person. Of course, it can't apply to those on the moon's surface, for everyone there wears suits; the dust can't get to the body. Eirin, Reisen, and the mysterious half, who we now know as 'Sakuya,' have all set foot on the moon capital. Now, all we have to do is track the dust, and that's exactly what the machine will do."

"Brilliant indeed. But do you really think it's worth risking the lives of all these Lunarians?" said Toyohime, remembering the reason they agreed to the peace talks in the first place. "You know I do, Toyohime. It's for the best. Besides, we can't take the moon rabbits. There are just too few moon rabbit soldiers now. That and the fact that I ceased production of spears and swords for the moon rabbit arm of the Lunar Defence Corps and replaced them with bayonets on their plasma rifles to save materials. The survivors and new recruits of the moon rabbit arm are all in the process of being trained using all the new reforms in tactics and weapons I implemented. I feel using moon rabbits now will only deter and endanger the mission. The few veterans will be confused over the old and new doctrines, and the new recruits are still unfit for military operations."

"You make it sound as if this operation is very dangerous," Toyohime told her sister, who replied, "It is, potentially. No one will suspect us should your part of the plan go well. These humans are easy to fool." Toyohime's face turned a little more worried as she recalled something. "Yorihime, what about the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter that the humans tell? Doesn't that story imply a gateway through the mountain?" A troubled look then appeared on Yorihime, who thought for a moment, smiled, and told her sister, "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. I'm sure these humans that are so full of themselves and so reliant on logic, technology, and reason, will dismiss the story as pure fantasy. In the end that will prove their undoing. Besides, their version of the story is false. Princess Kaguya never returned from her exile; the Lunar Ambassadors all disappeared….Eirin disappeared."

"Alright, that's enough, sister. We tell more stories tomorrow. I'm hungry. I hope we still have peaches," Toyohime said happily as she walked out of the room, followed by her sister. "Just remember, Yorihime, finish your business before I finish the peace talks. Technically, we're still at war, so your little operation is allowed to happen, until I finish. After that, I'm picking you up, and we're going home.

Yorihime nodded. "Understood, princess."

Back on Earth the following night, the Scarlet Devil Mansion became livelier as the sun went down, and the vampires woke up. Flandre's past experience have made her a little…unstable, couple that with her destructive power and you can get some very nasty results. Fortunately, Flandre agreed to be locked in the basement under the library so she wouldn't destroy any more innocent people and she has been there ever since the end of their vampirism 'incident.'

Remilia constantly throws night parties just for herself and the mansion's inhabitants, slowly whittling away the Scarlet Family's fortune. The Scarlets used to be a very rich family, but ever since the vampire incident, no more money was being earned, so the fortune started to slowly disappear. Now, the mansion earns money by selling the nice red roses that grow on their garden.

This night was a rather quiet night for the mansion. Remilia was tired and bored; she just wanted to eat, perhaps read a little, then go back to sleep. As Sakuya served Remilia's dinner, a thought came into Remilia's head. "Sakuya, why don't you just call your friends at the observatory? I've been living since the 1500s and even I know how to use a phone."

"Well, my lady, it isn't that simple. Hans and Eric are in hiding. I'm in hiding. We don't know who could be watching us or trying to find us. A simple phone call between us could break the silence we've been trying to keep. If someone finds out, we could all be in serious-"

"Miss Sakuya! A phone call for you!" said Antoine, a servant of Remilia, as he ran into the dining room. "No. You can't be serious..." Sakuya said to herself in terror. Sakuya ran towards the phone to hear Eric's voice on the line. "What the hell are you doing, Eric? The whole reason I visit you instead of call you is so we don't get found!"

Eric, unaffected by Sakuya's words, started speaking, though in a slurred and barely comprehensible voice, "Uhhh…..well…Hans told me you were looking for a mountain in this tale…..uhhh….I asked some of these villagers, and some pointed me to a 'fushi-no-yama' or something…and something about a 'Mountain abounding with warriors.' I think it's the same thing….yeah…I can't really tell you much because I'm no good at Japanese…More sake, please…."

"YOU'RE DRUNK! How am I supposed to believe a single word of what you're saying?" Sakuya was furious. She saves his life from a Lunarian prison and he risks rotting in another prison by calling her?

Eric, still unaffected by Sakuya's anger, replied, "Errr…well….just…just believe me….errrgh." There was a click, and the phone call ended. "Damn it. Let's just hope no one was monitoring that." After Sakuya finished cleaning up, she went to bed, a little worried, because her search was going nowhere, and that phone call could potentially give them two enemies to worry about on the Full moon.

Sakuya lay sideways on her bed, staring out the window, unable to fall asleep. She was anxious, tired, and a little scared. She wondered why she just agreed with Eirin when she gave her a mission. She wasn't her superior anymore. Those days are long gone. Why did she get herself into this mess in the first place? She wasn't involved at all. It's just that Eirin convinced her that it would save many people. Yes, it did, but now everything risks backfiring on her. Sakuya calmed herself, shut her eyes, and whispered to herself, "What's done is done. You can get through this. Two more nights."


	12. Tertia, Chapter 3: Delta

**Chapter 3: Delta**

The morning of March 6th, 1985 went about normally. Sakuya had pretty much given up on searching. She was certain the Lunarians would be looking for her, and not for Eric and Hans. She was determined to face them, to whatever end. "Antoine," Sakuya called, "I'm sorry for dragging the mansion into this, but I need your help." Antoine, who was second-in-command of the mansion, knew about Sakuya's predicament, but Sakuya was unsure about his opinion on Sakuya's decision to stay in the mansion on the 7th, the night when the Lunarians would arrive. "Sakuya, you know I'll help you. I'll take out the guns and ammo today and have the servants warm up tomorrow morning. It's been a long time since any of us have shot at anything." Sakuya sighed in relief, and said, "Thank you, Antoine. I'd better get ready too."

Sakuya began to go back to her Lunch preparations, and then thought to herself, "The full moon is tomorrow, but tomorrow begins at midnight. What if…no…"

Sakuya, realizing that the Lunarians may arrive tonight, not tomorrow night, pressed a button on her pocket watch to slow time as she ran as fast as she could to the library. The watch's timer ended and time resumed as she arrived, and she slammed the doors open and called out to Patchouli. Sakuya ran around the maze of bookshelves, desperately calling for the librarian. When she finally found Patchouli, Sakuya was panting and sweating.

Patchouli, oblivious to the worried look of desperation in Sakuya's sweaty face, started talking to Sakuya, "Good day. Did you know I felt some strange energy as I was walking through the forest this morning? There seems to be a magical barrier to some hidden place. I passed through what seemed to be the barrier and nothing happened. There's something weird there, like a border. The forest must be an illusion, hiding something. And yes, I took your advice and went outside. I think I should do that more often. Oh, sorry, what did you need?" Sakuya, still panting, asked her, "The full moon. What is the exact time of the Full moon tomorrow?"

"Let me think…" Patchouli answered, putting her palm over her forehead. "Luna will be in full moon 3 hours, 13 minutes, and 6 seconds after midnight tonight."

"No…but…Do you think they'll come tonight?" Sakuya asked Patchouli, to which she replied, "Based on our knowledge of the Lunarians, they'll want to be on time. Do you know what time the negotiations are?"

"I just know that the negotiations will begin on the night of the 7th…" Sakuya said.

Patchouli then asked Sakuya, "Indeed, but which night; is it the one before the day or the one after the day?"

"I'll assume the worst. Thanks." With that, Sakuya ran back to Antoine.

"Antoine! Antoine!" Sakuya called out to Antoine has she ran through the hallways. As she turned a corner, she hit a table and tripped, hitting her head on the carpeted floor. Thoughts were ringing in her head: Remilia's dinner, Eirin, Hans, Eric…Eric? Yes, something Eric said on the phone was echoing in her head, 'Fushi-no-Yama,' 'Mountain abounding with warriors,' 'the mountain of immortality.' She lay on the floor, dazed, whispering, "Fushi-no-Yama, immortality, warriors, Fushi-Yama…..Fu…Fuji-Yama!" She got up and said loudly to herself, "Mount Fuji!"

"Antoine, be ready tonight. I have to go tell Hans and Eric." Sakuya changed into combat gear, and had all the mansions servants ready for a firefight. Sakuya looked at her pocket-watch: '1:30 PM' She had around 13 hours. That isn't be enough time for preparation and ascension of Mount Fuji, but she had to work with what she had.

It took Sakuya an hour to travel to the Observatory. As she trudged up the path leading there, she heard a bird's chirping. The chirping was unfamiliar. She had never heard a bird chirp like that in this area. She drew a throwing knife from her back compartment, but her hand was grabbed from behind. Sakuya used her other arm to grab the assailant's neck and threw him over her shoulder. The man was wearing boots, cargo pants, polo, with a vest with an image of the flag of the United States, knee and shoulder pads, and he wore a helmet with an insignia on its side: a dagger going through a Greek letter 'Delta' that had a lightning bolt in it. Delta Force. Sakuya moved to stab the attacker, but the Delta Force Operative pulled a dagger out of one of his sheaths, blocked Sakuya's attack and got back up. A voice from the trees shouted, "Hold it!" and with that, more Delta Force operatives appeared from hiding, guns raised at Sakuya.

The Helmet of the Delta operative that attacked Sakuya had the word, 'Romeo' on the back of his helmet. It was his callsign. Romeo looked at Sakuya, and said, "You aren't Kate. She isn't as cute you." The other Delta operatives came out from their positions, all dressed similarly: combat gear over casual clothing, some of them wore helmets, others, caps. Their guns were raised towards Sakuya. One of them stood down and said, "She isn't Kate. She's the one who infiltrated the Okinawa base and hitched a ride to the moon." The man that spoke was the leader of the operation, callsign 'King.' He had a 5 o' clock shadow, a cleft chin, and a scar on his cheek. Sakuya couldn't make out the rest of his facial feature because of his helmet and goggles. King ordered his men to relieve Sakuya of her weapons. Sakuya reached into her pocket, and took out Luna Dial. "Not my watch," she said. "Why," asked one of the Delta operatives, "What kind of explosives have you got in there?" to which Sakuya replied, "Nothing. It's just…special." King ordered the team back into the observatory. "Janissary, Raven, you two watch the girl. Careful." Janissary was the largest of the Delta operatives; he appeared to be of Turkish descent, and carried an M60 machine gun, an M79 grenade launcher, and ammunition. Raven was about the same size as the rest of the team, but was a little leaner, wore shades, all-black clothing, and carried a silenced MP5 submachine gun, and silenced pistols. Sakuya noticed that she could hear all of the Delta operatives' footsteps, but not Raven's.

Sakuya sat with her hands bound next to Eric and Hans, who were in the same position. While the Delta troops were talking, Sakuya observed them. King was the operation leader; his callsign also made that obvious. Raven was a rifleman and stealth infiltrator. Janissary was the team's human tank. Tarantula and Romeo were close-quarters combat specialists, Dollar was a marksman, Tengu was the engineer, while Jack was a rifleman. Remeo caught Sakuya's attention. He appeared to love knives even more than Sakuya. Sakuya noticed all the knives hanging from Romeo's vest: he had Japanese _kunai,_ European knives, and even exotic African throwing knives. She also saw he had an assortment of combat and fighting knives, such as a butterfly knife, a switchblade, and a ballistic knife.

"Alright. You must be Sakuya," King said to Sakuya, "So, what was your motive? I doubt it had anything to do with showing the world this war, because you were more secretive than we were. I'd also rule out attempting to undermine the operations on Luna. It was you who opened that door to the Lunar Capital. No one understands. "

"My motive was to end the war. You're welcome," Sakuya answered. "But there's something else."

"What?" asked King. Sakuya took a breath. "They're coming to Earth. Not the peace envoy. An incursion force."

"How do you know this?" asked Raven, to which Sakuya replied, "I have my sources. I know that as long as those peace treaty papers aren't signed, we are still at war, and I know that they are after me, first and foremost, and these two veterans are probably second on their list," she said, referring to Hans and Eric, "And I know where."

"Tell us, then," King demanded. "With the three of us tied up like this, no. I helped end the war; maybe you can give me something in return?"

"Like what?" King asked.

"Let the three of us free, and make it so that the three of us do not exist. No one will ever know who and where we are. We can take them by surprise. I'll help you repel them. Or you can leave us tied up here, get massacred, and let all of us die. This will be the last engagement of the Lunar War. Don't you want some payback for all the lives lost on Luna? They think they'll take us completely by surprise. They want to humiliate us one more time as the war comes to a close. Want a chance to turn that around and humiliate them?"

"That's a very tempting offer," said Romeo, as he walked into the room. "There was one Delta team on the moon. I knew them all. I hear they were sent on a sabotage mission behind the Lunarian lines. They succeeded in their objectives, but the Lunarians caught them, and sent their heads back to Tranquility Base. Just their heads. I don't want to pass up this offer, Sir."

King thought for a second, then spoke, "Right. Cut her loose, Romeo."

Romeo took out his switchblade and cut Sakuya free. Sakuya stood up, and told the Deltas, "The summit of Mount Fuji, around the same time as the peace envoy arrives. They have some sort of waygate or portal that connects the Lunar Capital with the Fuji Summit."

"That's one hell of a climb, sir, " said Raven, "especially at this time of the year. And we need to get there before 2100 hours tomorrow."

"The summit too," Tengu continued, "It'll be difficult to defend. I don't think anyone's ever fought a defensive action like the one we're facing. The enemy will be pouring out from the summit, and we'll be defending going downhill."

"That's why we need to bog them down right at their entry point. So they don't push us down the mountain," Romeo answered. "And to do that, we'll need to be up there first."

"It looks like we're convinced of your intel, even if there's barely any proof to it. Probably because you're coming with us." King told Sakuya. "So, here's the plan…."

The Deltas would leave their third team, comprising of Tengu, Jack, Dollar, and Tarantula, at the observatory with Eric and Hans, keeping the two assets, as well as the observatory, protected, while getting as much information from the two as possible. Team 1, which included King, Janissary, Raven, and Romeo, would go to Mount Fuji with Sakuya, and regroup with Team 2, whose members included Zephyr, Ice, Spectre, and Angus. The Japanese SDF would be contacted to help secure the area around the mountain and ensure no civilians were present at the area, with the pretense that Mount Fuji is displaying increased volcanic behavior. Teams 1 and 2, along with Sakuya, would ascend to the summit of Mount Fuji and prepare to ambush the Lunarian incursion force. They would need to get there before 2100 or 9 PM of March 7th, the agreed time of the peace talks, and the most probable time of incursion.

"We'll need to get all our mountain gear ready," said King, "Raven, call command and inform them of the new plan, and then get _Seraph _for a pickup. Tell Team 2 to ready all the mountain gear at the airbase, and get an extra set; we'll meet them there."

A few minutes later a Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter arrived at the observatory. "Deltas, _Seraph_ has arrived," said the Blackhawk pilot to the Deltas. Eric and Hans went outside to see the helicopter. "Damn. Haven't seen that one before," said Eric.

"Yeah," replied King, "This is the Blackhawk, Callahan; A more than worthy replacement to the honorable UH-1 Huey. Introduced in '79. Soon to be the first helicopter to see combat against the Lunarians."

_Seraph _acted more as an infiltration and exfiltration helicopter, armed only with one side-mounted M240 heavy machinegun. It was colored black, with a painting of an angel near the cockpit King, Janissary, Raven, Romeo, and Sakuya boarded _Seraph_.

"Good hunting, Team One," said Tarantula on the comm as _Seraph_ lifted off from the ground. The helicopter took them to the US airbase closest to Mount Fuji, and landed beside another Blackhawk, which was also painted black and had a painting of a demon on the same place _Seraph_'s angel painting was on. This was _Shedim_, the transport of Team 2, and this Blackhawk was much more heavily armed, with two side-mounted M134 miniguns that were being loaded by Team 2 with incendiary rounds. _Shedim_ also had a hellfire missile hardpoint and a 30 caliber gunpod on each of her sides. Shedim would act as the game-changer should things go south for the Deltas. As _Shedim_ lays down massive covering fire, _Seraph _would land and rescue the Deltas.

In the airbase, only the crews of the two Helicopters, the Deltas, Sakuya, and two airforce pilots chosen to provide close air-support were aware of the situation. The rest of the airbase were told that it was just a training exercise. The Deltas took all the necessary preparations for the ascent up Mount Fuji. They needed to leave at the right time, and get there ar the right time. The top of Mount Fuji is encased in snow at this time, and staying there for elongated periods of time on the cold mountaintop may put the team out of fighting condition.

There was one final briefing before the two helicopters set out for Fuji. The two airforce pilots would be put on alert once the peace talks begin. Should the Deltas be compromised beyond rescue or forced to extract from overwhelming enemy force, the two pilots would make a bombing run on Mount Fuji's summit in a last ditch effort to stop the Lunarians on the mountain.

At 700 hours, March 7th, approximately 10 hours from the beginning of peace talks, the two helicopters lifted off from the airbase. Eight Deltas, four pilots for the Blackhawks, two gunners manning _Shedim_'s miniguns, and Sakuya. About an hour later, they reached Fujiyama.

"We'll drop you off at 5000 feet. Any higher and I can't hover," announced the pilot of Seraph.

"Roger that," replied King.

"How will Shedim cover us up there?" asked Sakuya on the comm.

"The Blackhawks can't hover above 5400 feet, but they can still fly straight at up to 19000 feet," Raven answered, "_Shedim_ will need to make passes when she covers us, but it's better than nothing. If we fall back from the summit should things go south, we'd best fall back to 5000 feet so we can extract."

"You talk like descending from 12000 feet to 5000 feet on a mountain only takes a few seconds," said Romeo

"I'd wager from 5000 feet, we'll take about 4 hours to get to the summit, and about 1 and a half hours to get back down to 5000."

"2 mikes to the target," _Shedim_'s pilot exclaimed.

"Sakuya," Romeo called.

"Yeah?" she answered.

"I want you to have this," he said as he pulled out a strange-looking knife from his pocket. "This is a Spetsnaz ballistic knife. I pulled it from a Russian Spetsnaz operative in Laos. Press this button here and the blade will shoot out of the handle. You might find it useful for something."

Sakuya took it, even though she thought she wouldn't need it. The handle was quite unwieldy, and she was already an expert knife thrower. She looked at Romeo, though couldn't see his or any of the other Deltas' faces anymore; everyone was wearing mountain gear, and had covered most of their faces.

"Nice butterfly knife," Sakuya said to Romeo, noticing his traditional-looking butterrfly knife

"Yeah. I actually bought this one in the Philippines. The real name of the butterfly knife is _Balisong_. It originated in the province of Batangas in the Philippines. Sorry, I just love knives," Romeo said.

Sakuya chuckled lightly and replied, "You and me both."

The two Blackhawks landed on a flat area around 5000 feet up the mountain. The snow wasn't so bad here, so the Blackhawks remain here, along with the airforce crewmen. The eight Deltas and Sakuya immediately moved out of the helicopters and began the ascent of Fujiyama.

Raven and King moved in front of the rest. "De Opresso Liber, Deltas. Let's go."


	13. Tertia, Chapter 4: Fuji Yama, Part 1

**Chapter 4: Fuji Yama **

Part 1:

The wind blew cold and the snow fell hard on the ascent up Mount Fuji. March was probably the worst time one would choose to climb Fuji. The Deltas aimed to turn that to their advantage. Visibility was incredibly low and the snow made it terribly difficult to move; the Lunarians have never fought in these conditions. It is easy to move and easy to see on the moon. The only mild similarity between Luna's surface and Fuji's summit was that both were difficult to breath in, but Fuji was not a very tall mountain for the Deltas, who were conditioned to fight in all kinds of altitudes and weather. The Lunarians, on the other hand, had their equipment to counter this.

The Deltas were moving at a steady pace up the snow-covered Mount Fuji. Their extensive training and conditioning made the climb much easier. Even Sakuya seemed to be taking the climb alright. Janissary noticing this, asked, "Who trained you, Sakuya?" to which she replied, "You know about the Lunarians already, and you believe my intel about the gate on the summit, so I'm guessing you won't be surprised by this one…"

"Yeah, spit it out, hehe," said Janissary.

"Don't get all emotional," Sakuya cautioned, "because I was trained by the _Waffen SS, _but before I was employed by the Third Reich, I went around the world learning some martial arts and my knife throwing."

Sakuya continued, "I mastered any martial arts that focused on knives or daggers, and I'm probably average at everything else, but the SS helped me use them all in conjunction with each other, perfected my throwing technique, and trained me for battlefield command and tactical infiltration, so I could be a field commander, and a special operator."

"Damn," replied Janissary "We knew from the moment we began searching for you that you were a damn good killer, but now, hell, we're lucky you're on our side, otherwise, we would need a few more Deltas."

The Deltas shared a light laugh, but King ordered, "Hush, ladies. Air is getting thinner; save your energy."

"Affirmative, King," replied Janissary.

The Deltas had little trouble traversing the mountain, as they were following the popular tourist path up Fuji, albeit it was all covered in thick snow, and Raven had to lead, as he was the only one who had climbed Fuji before, and he remembered the path well, even in the snow. Using the paths ensured that the Deltas wouldn't have to make any extreme vertical climbs, leaps, or encounter very rough terrain. What they had to cope with, however, was the snow. The night made it much, much colder, as there was no sun to give warmth. The same could be said for the visibility. The snowfall and lack of sunlight reduced visibility to near zero.

After a while, the Deltas were close to the summit. Raven used his hands on a snow-wall to reveal a retaining wall, used to stop erosion caused by many climbers near the summit. "Right," Raven told the Deltas, "There is a crater at the summit, and there are eight peaks surrounding that crater. Assuming that the gate is in the crater, which it probably is, considering the predictability of the Lunar Defence Corps, we should split up and take high ground surrounding the crater. When the incursion force pops out, we drop 'em like flies, destroy the waygate, go back to the observatory, and have a drink to celebrate. War's over.

"There's a problem with your plan, Raven," said Zephyr, "flies are not easy to drop."

"That's why we're Deltas, Zeph;" Raven replied with a chuckle, "leave the easy stuff to the Army."

"It's 2013 hours. If it's clear, we could just plant explosives around this 'gate,' blow this thing, and go home," said Spectre.

"You got that last line from Star Wars, jackass," joked Janissary.

"That makes me think," Romeo added, "What if this Lucas dude got tipped off about the Lunar War and then made Star Wars?"

"Leave that crap to the CIA; I'm here to kill moon-people," Janissary answered.

"Well, I'm against blowing the gate and stopping them before they get here," declared Romeo, "I want to kill some Lunarians."

"I suggest you all shut up," King announced on the radio, "because we can't do any of those things."

King and Raven had proceeded up to one of the peaks of the summit to view the whole summit. They found that the Lunarian scouts were already in the crater, assembling a device of some sort.

"What do you mean?" Angus asked angrily as he climbed up to where Raven was.

"I mean, I don't see any portal and we don't have time to make a good ambush," answered King.

"Well, I can't see a thing," Angus complained. "Use your thermal scope, smartass," said Raven sourly.

"Riiight."

"Hold on, I got something," Raven continued. Raven saw a mesh of heat signatures appear as if out of nowhere. The mesh of heat arranged into a couple of Lunarian scout heat signatures. "Crap, maaan. That's a one-way entry portal. The entrance is on the moon, and there's no exit gate here."

"Shit, so we can't shut these guys out?" Ice asked. "Yeah. We need to kill every Lunar son-of-a-bitch that comes through the gate! And we are to keep killing them until they lose stomach to die for their princess. Any complaints?" King said, addressing his team.

"Sir, no sir!" answered all the Deltas, silently.

"What about ammo?" asked Ice. Sakuya replied to him instantly, "Look, those are just Lunarian scout troops. An M4 carbine would probably take a scout down in 2 or 3 shots. Be thankful these aren't Royal Guards; I believe it would take about half of an M4 clip to take one of them down."

"What about higher round calibres?" Angus asked Sakuya. "Obviously, those would kill them faster," she replied.

The Deltas, as stealthily as they could, spread out on higher ground around the summit's crater. "Everyone, on thermal now. Pick your targets," King whispered into the radio. Ice with his Sniper, Janissary and Angus with their machine guns, Romeo loading explosive rounds into his shotgun, Spectre swapping his rifle for a grenade launcher, and Zephyr, King, Raven, and Sakuya with assault rifles, all ready. The Lunarian scouts glowed white in contrast to the cold snow which appeared almost pitch black on the Deltas' thermal scopes. "Waiting on your word, King. They're sitting ducks down there."

A few seconds passed. There were no more scouts coming through the portal.

King's deep inhale could be heard on the radio.

"Fire."

Several flashes of light and loud firing sounds startled the Lunarian scouts, struggling in the deep snow. It was instantly followed by bullets impacting several Lunarians and the explosions of grenade and explosive rounds, splattering Lunarian blood, metal, and body parts, dirtying the clean, white snow. The device they were assembling was hit by an explosive round fire by Romeo.

"No!" shouted a Lunarian scout to one of his comrades. "Protect the device. Return fire!" The surviving Lunarian scouts fired their pinpoint-accurate plasma and energy rifles at where the flashes appeared. The Deltas were fast, though, and all of them displaced from their firing positions before the Lunarians reacted. A second volley was fired by the Deltas; the flashes appearing from different locations in the dark blizzard.

"Protect the devic—" spat a Lunarian scout as a bullet shattered his skull. The Deltas kept up their fire, as the Lunarian troops were already breaking. The demoralized scouts, broken and frustrated by the deaths of their comrades and their somewhat invisible enemy, forgot they had visors to compensate for the weather and did not turn them on. They desperately fired blindly into the snowstorm, hitting nothing as the last of them was killed.

"…That was it?" Ice announced in displeasure. "Hell, we didn't even empty a single clip."

"Fired 3 grenades from my M32," said Spectre, "Got plenty more where that came from."

Raven sighed, "Those were scouts, man; what do you think?"

The Deltas maintained their distance from the device the Lunarians were assembling, fearing anything could pop up from the portal. They instead placed claymore antipersonnel mines around the perimeter of the crater to slow any Lunarian advance. Romeo, who doubted King's decision, asked, "Why don't we destroy that thing, sir?" King shook his head and answered him, "When we repel the main attack we'll take this thing, or parts of it, and take it back to command.

Romeo nodded at King, and turned to Sakuya. "Right. Oh, and Sakuya, I was supposed to ask you something before we fragged those Lunarian Scouts. If you were trained by the SS, how…how old are you?"

Sakuya giggled, and told him, "That, Romeo, is why society says, 'never ask a woman her age.' That beautiful maiden might be a one-hundred-fifty year-old half-Lunarian." Romeo exhaled, and said, "Are you that old, Sakuya?"

"I didn't say anything about MY age, but I am half-Lunarian. That doesn't change the deal; you're letting me go when this is over."

The Deltas had a little laugh, and rested.

While the Deltas were resting and eating some snacks, confident that they would overcome anything the Lunarians could put through that portal, the main Lunarian incursion force, consisting of 100 Royal Guards, 3 Lunarian Aerial Gunships, 2 Light Anti-infantry walkers, and Watatsuki no Yorihime, was in the staging area around the portal structure that led to the summit of Fujiyama

The Royal Guards were the best soldiers in the Lunar Defence Corps. They had the best training, the best weapons, and the best combat armour. Each stood 6-7 feet tall and they had unbreakable morale; they would fight to the death rather than flee. Instead of a plasma rifle and energy-coated steel sword, the Lunarians had reformed their battle technology and gave their new plasma rifles steel bayonets that were coated with plasma energy instead of their traditional plasma-coated katanas and spears, reducing the material required in making weapons. The Lunarian Gunships were similar to Earth helicopters; they could transport soldiers as well as provide fire support, and could not be used in space. The light walkers were twice the size of a Lunarian Royal Guard and were used to support infantry advances, because they could go where Heavy walkers and Tanks could not; they were like larger versions of Lunarian infantry.

The Royal Guards, dressed in Blood-Red and Gold advanced Lunarian combat suits were making final preparations

"Lady Yorihime," a Lunarian officer called, running to Yorihime, "There is still no response from the scouts."

"Perhaps the weather up there is scrambling their transmissions," said a Royal Guard.

"If those fools set up the device first, the weather wouldn't be a problem," replied a larger Royal Guard, at least a head taller than the others, who, unlike the others, wore Black and Blood-Red armor, and did not carry a rifle. He instead carried a long Naginata polearm, which, just like other Lunarian melee weapons, had a blade made of Lunar steel that could be coated in a plasma field to increase the cutting power of the weapon and the pain of whoever was at the receiving end of the weapon. The name of this monster of a Lunarian was Kanabo. In Ancient and Medieval Japan, a Kanabo was a large club-like weapon used by Samurai and other Japanese Warriors. It was made of wood or iron and had little spikes on one end. The Kanabo was used to smash armour and bones, which is what the Lunarian, Kanabo liked doing.

"No," Yorihime finally spoke. "Something has happened. Even with terrible weather, communication from Earth would reach us, at least." Yorihime was dressed in Royal Red and Gold combat armour, armed only with her Katana. Yorihime's Katana was specially made at her request; its pommel, collar, guard, and blade collar were all shining gold. The handle was a deep blood-red, and its blade was made of Lunarian steel, which shined an ominous blue-silver. Like other traditional Lunarian weapons, a small button could coat the blade with plasma, but Yorihime requested an opaque white-blue flame to coat her blade instead of the usual transparent glowing blue. No one has ever seen the magnificent blade coated with the fire, for until now she had only used it for chopping the heads off traitors in private.

She was not to be underestimated though. She was the leader of the Lunar Defence Corps, and a master of the sword.

"This portal could be the death of us, milady," said a Royal Guard to Yorihime, who chuckled and said, "It's old technology, no doubt. So old, that the weather and lack of maintenance on the Fuji portal rendered it impossible to get to the capital from there. Only this end of the portal works, so we need to wait for my sister to pick us up."

Kanabo, who was restless and eager to spill blood and crack skulls, stomped, and said, "Let us go through the portal! My blade seeks Terran blood!"

Yorihime turned to face Kanabo, and snapped, "Control yourself, Kanabo! We must wait for my sister's signal."

Kanabo would not have to wait long. Yorihime's sister, Toyohime, would signal them soon enough.

On a United Nations mountain fortress, located high on the snowy Swiss mountains, a small, sleek, and slender, Lunarian stealth spacecraft made its landing. The ship's boarding ramp opened to reveal Princess Toyohime in her blue dress, wearing her favourite white hat. Toyohime was followed by an entourage of Royal Guards. The Princess looked to the sky and frowned, disappointed that the clouds blocked her view of the beautiful full moon. The snow was falling though, and a snowflake fell on her nose while she was looking up. Toyohime was tickled and her mood lit up, her hand reaching out to catch more snow. "What a lovely place for a negotiation," she said to herself, "The air is fresh and the white snow speaks, 'purity.' It's no surprise that the only mildly beautiful places on this terrible, impure planet are the ones closest to the heavens…closest to home." Opposite the Princess and her guards, were a group of U.N. soldiers, clad in black military attire, and in the middle of this group was the newly appointed U.N. ambassador to the moon, dressed in formal attire under a snow coat. The ambassador approached Toyohime and bowed, making sure to be very polite.

The ambassador spoke in Japanese, as the Lunarians could understand the language very well. "Welcome to Earth, your highness."

The Princess sighed, and told him, "I don't need your petty pleasantries, terran; take me to the council."

"Of course, Princess Toyohime. This way," the ambassador answered as he turned around and started walking.

Princess Toyohime called one of her guards to approach her. The princess whispered to the guard, "Contact my sister; tell her, 'the smoke of Hourai burns again,' quickly."

"Your will be done, princess," was the reply. The guard went back up the stealth ship and initiated communication with the moon. A minute later, a Lunarian Guard on the moon ran to Yorihime and her Royal Guards, who were still by the portal gate, itching for combat.

"Milady," said the guard, "Princess Toyohime sends her message."

Yorihime and Toyohime made the message between the just two of them, to ensure that any would-be traitors couldn't be able to do anything until the message was already given. Yorihime raised her eyebrow, and told the messenger, "Say it."

"The smoke of Hourai burns again."

"Right." Yorihime turned to the technicians controlling the portal, and made a hand signal. The technicians input some ancient passcodes, and the gateway to Earth had been re-opened.

Yorihime turned back to the 100 Royal Guards, and started, "2nd platoon will move in first, followed by me and 1st platoon. 2nd will clear the summit, while we move in all the tracking equipment and the gunships. Kanabo, lead 2nd platoon and take the walkers with you; make sure to kill any Terran scum you come across on that mountain!"

Kanabo zealously exclaimed in reply, "As you will, Milady!"

"2nd Guards Battalion, First Company!" Yorihime called, referring to the 100 Royal Guards of 1st and 2nd platoon, "What awaits us behind that portal?"

"DISEASE! DIRT! DEATH!" was the collective reply.

"And what are we going to do?" Yorihime shouted even louder, rousing the soldiers up even more.

The Royal Guards replied in thunderous chorus: "PURGE! PURIFY!"

"That's what I like to hear!" Yorihime drew her beautifully crafted Katana and raised it in the air, ordering, "To battle!"

The Lunarian Royal Guards let out a cheer, "Eternity to Lord Tsukuyomi! Eternity to the Princess!" With that, Kanabo took hold of his large naginata, and ordered his platoon, "CHARGE!"

Meanwhile, in the Swiss Alps, the ceasefire talks have already begun. "Princess Toyohime," spoke one of the UN council members, "we do not wish to continue this war, and neither do you and your people."

"I know that. Both sides have lost much, but we both know that your side has lost more. So here is what I propose: The Terrans shall never touch the surface of Luna ever again, and we shall not tread upon Luna's outer surface. The surface of Luna and the space in proximity will be restricted to both sides, ensuring the security of each."

"That is outrageous!" cried another member of the council. "There should be some form of communication between our peoples, in the name of science, and prosperity!"

Toyohime, outraged by being defied, a feeling she has so seldom felt in her near-immortal life, snapped, "We have nothing to gain from you Terrans, and there is nothing we are willing to share. Remember, it was you who came to us, demanding our cooperation. We were only ever defending our land. Be right to remember that, and to remember all the uselessly spilled blood of your armies that were spilled by our swords when you tried to cross the Lunarians!"

One of the council members turned to the ambassador, whispering, "This is going to be a long night."

"I got something on thermal!" Zephyr reported on the comm. "A swirling mass of heat energy…" King knew that this was the next wave of Lunarians and ordered his team to stand fast. "Get ready!" Romeo observed the portal exit with his thermal sights, and noticed the swirl of heat was forming into silhouettes of men, taller and larger than the scouts the Delta team had just neutralized. "Oh no, guys, this is not good."

"Stand fast!" ordered King on the comm, "weapons at the ready!"

The Deltas pointed their guns down towards the crater's centre. The mesh of heat signatures finally arranged themselves and 25 Lunarian Royal Guards phased onto Fuji's crater.

"These assholes better not be who I think they are," Angus remarked silently, to which Sakuya replied, "Sorry, but your worst fears are a reality now. Ready yourself for the fiercest battle you will ever fight."

King noticed the Royal Guards, in their heavier armour, struggling even more in the thick snow. He seized the opportunity. "Fire! Waste the bastards!"

The eight Deltas, along with Sakuya, took careful shots at the Lunarian Royal Guards. Bullets from King's and Raven's M4 Carbines hit the Guards dead centre, but the impacts of first few shots were neutralized by the advanced Royal Guard armour. After emptying a quarter of their clips, both had scored a kill. Ice and Sakuya, armed with Steyr AUG assault rifles, found that their rifles killed the Guards a few milliseconds faster than King's and Raven's rifles. Zephyr had less trouble. Equipped with an M14 DMR Battle Rifle, Zephyr took pot shots at the Lunarian Guards, killing them with either 3-4 shots to the body, or, with luck, 2 shots to the head. Spectre killed a few Lunarian Guards with his M32 Grenade Launcher, though the Royal Guards' armour proved highly resistant to HE rounds. The grenades had to either impact the Guard directly, or explode very close to the Guard. Janissary fire short bursts of his M60 Light Machine Gun to suppress the Royal Guards, while Romeo and Angus remained hidden until any Guards advanced close enough

The Guards remained unshaken, careful not to blindly return fire. One of them ordered, "Visors!" With that, the Royal Guards on the point twisted a dial on their helmet system that revealed, for a short time, the surrounding environment, and pinpointed each Delta member, as well as Sakuya. The visors ran out of energy and had to be left to recharge before being used again. This was how UN soldiers on the moon were so easily spotted and picked off. The Scouts that the Deltas engaged earlier panicked from the ambush and their heavy disadvantage in the engagement, and neglected their visors as they fired blindly into the snowfall and were cut down. Royal Guards, however, do not panic.

"There they are. Open fire. Take them down before the waypoints we placed on them disappear!"

Each Delta was marked by the Royal Guards and every Royal Guard in the area received the waypoint of each Delta on their visors. The four Royal Guards aimed their rifles, but were cut down before they cut fire. The Guards behind them predicted this, though, and pre-calculated their aiming. They open fired.

"Back!" shouted King. A few plasma bolts zipped past the Deltas as they attempted to move backwards to avoid the fire. The Deltas returned fire, and faced another volley of plasma.

Ice's head was torn in two by a plasma bolt, and his body fell to the ground. "Fuck! Everyone, fall back! Down the mountain!"

Janissary and King fired their weapons uncontrollably, the spray of automatic gunfire distracting the Lunarian guards from getting good shots at the other Deltas, while killing a few others.

"Romeo! Angus! Now!" King barked.

Angus and Romeo pulled out remote detonators, and they pressed the buttons simultaneously. Remote explosives and Claymore mines detonated beneath the Royal Guards' feet, killing most of what remained of the first wave of Royal Guards. Angus got up from a prone position to run down the mountain peak, but a plasma bolt went through his chest as soon as he started running.

"Get down, Deltas! We can get through this!" Those targeting visors aren't permanent. So long as we have the weather on our side, we can take most of the down, and then we can call _Shedim_ to finish them off!"

As the Deltas began their withdrawal from Fuji's summit, the surviving Royal Guards began repairing the device the Lunar Scouts failed to set up. The Royal Guard sergeant contacted the Lunar Capital immediately.

"Milady," the sergeant said, addressing Lady Yorihime, "There is stiff resistance on the summit. It seems as though this is a group of their most experienced soldiers. I have already lost 20 men."

"The Royal Guards usually love a challenge, but we have other priorities and limited time. I'm sending Kanabo, the walkers, and the rest of 2nd platoon. I will be joining the battle soon after. Clear that summit, sergeant."

"As you will, Milady," the sergeant responded as he closed communications. "Soldiers, how is the device holding?"

"A simple fix, sir. The Terrans merely put holes on it. No internal damage."

"Activate it."

"Yes, sir." One of the Royal Guards input a few adjustments to the device's control panel, followed by a serial code to activate the device. The device began to emit small electrical bolts, which increased in intensity. The heavy snow quickly halted, and the thick clouds began to disappear. In mere seconds, the skies above Fuji were probably clearer than they have ever been in history. No snowfall, no clouds, and very good visibility, even at night. The full moon should've looked beautiful this night, but to the Deltas it was an ominous reminder of the sheer power of the enemy. The enemy that could, even if only a little, make the weather succumb to its will.

The Deltas reloaded their weapons and readied their hearts for their finest hour, for now all odds were against them; the weather was no longer on their side.


	14. Tertia, Chapter 4: Fuji Yama, Part 2

**Chapter 4: Fuji Yama**

Part 2:

"Do you want this war to continue, Princess?" asked another UN council member, as if giving a challenge. "We have the manpower. We have the resources. We can keep fighting, Princess. The question is, can you?"

Princess Toyohime started the negotiations very strongly, but a millennium of constant war didn't only increase the Earth's military experience; Toyohime quickly discovered that the Terrans greatly outmatched her in this political battle. She struggled to give counter-arguments and rebuttals to the United Nations council.

"My people and I do not wish to continue this war, councillor," Toyohime answered, "and I know you can continue the war. But do you want to? As barbaric as you may be, I know for a fact that you humans value life. Before this war, I had assumed that the Earth's humans valued life so much. Your lives are short; they are measured by counting the years until death, for death is inevitable for you. Death is not a tragedy all Lunarians have to face. I'd thought that you'd treasure the human life so much, because it is so fragile and so short…"

Toyohime paused for a moment. The room was silent for a few seconds, and then the princess continued,

"But now I know just how pathetic your standards are. Thousands upon thousands of human lives wasted on the cold surface of Luna, with no gains, and no glory, yet you maintain your course of action. What do you do in response to this? You send more men and women to die; uncaring, unloving, and ungrateful of these lives the Gods have granted us. You may think your lives are pathetic because they are so short, but a life is a life, and the shorter it is, the more it should be treasured!"

There was another pause. Toyohime had figured out the ruse, if a bit late, and took a deep breath to finish. It was time to exploit the UN's lie.

"We, the proud and glorious Lunarian race, will not accept the ceasefire conditions of a ruthless and devastating enemy that fails to see the value of life. All you have shown me tonight is that you care not for peace and prosperity. You want blood! You want death! And the Lunarians will give it to you! Send your armies again if you dare, and we will again send them back, in nothing but bloody pieces!"

This was, of course, a ruse to counter the United Nation's. The Lunar Capital had been devastated; the Moon Rabbits of the Lunar Defence Corps were close to annihilation at this point. Luna still had much of its armoured divisions and combat spacecraft, but close to no infantry. To Toyohime's surprise, the ruse worked. As Toyohime turned around to look as if she were to walk away, another U.N. councillor stood up, and said,

"Wait!"

Toyohime turned around, hiding her smirk, and listened.

"We can work this out!"

"How so?" Toyohime replied.

"We are weary from the fighting as well. This war was a result of our selfishness. We can prove to you that we aren't as horrible as you think we are. Let us show you the other side of the human race."

Toyohime, touched by the sincerity of this UN Councillor, suppressed her hatred for a moment, and spoke in a more caring and kind tone,

"Well then, perhaps you are right. I am impressed that you would set aside your pride, even for a moment, and realize your mistake. You indeed started this war, but knowing that you do have intentions of trying to right your wrongs…perhaps you aren't as evil as we thought. The blood is still fresh though, so I propose we leave each other alone for now. Let the wounds heal and the hatred be forgotten. I propose 20 years of non-contact between our civilizations. There is nothing for us Lunarians on the surface of Luna. You may land there for scientific purposes, and to clean up your mess. We will not interfere, but we will not allow any you to bring any military equipment or personnel."

There was silence in the conference hall for a good 5 seconds. A UN councillor spoke up,

"All in favour,"

With that, the majority of the people in the room raised their hands.

"Then, it is settled."

A General walked towards Princess Toyohime, and addressed her as she walked out of the building. The snow was still falling outside.

"Milady, if I may," the general started. Toyohime stopped walking towards her ship, and turned around to face him.

"You may, General," she replied.

"Thank you for being considerate. I'm looking forward to a time of peace, prosperity, and equality between our civilizations," expressed the General.

"Hmph," Toyohime sighed, and told the General, "I appreciate the chance to live without our peoples killing each other, and I do believe we may perhaps live in peace and prosperity, but don't tread too far, General. There will never be equality between us, for the simple reason that we are not equal. We may have agreed to stop the war, but you are still below us, literally, and figuratively. This peace we have created is a very thin strand of cloth, one you know we can cut very easily. Now, if you don't mind, I have somewhere to be."

"Of course, princess. Farewell."

"PILOT!" barked Toyohime, "Get this ship ready to take off!"

"Yes, Princess!"

The UN peace talks with the Lunarians took three hours, starting at 1300 hours in Switzerland, or 2100 hours in Japan. As such, 2100 hours was the same time the first wave of Royal Guards came through the portal and attacked the Deltas. By 2200 hours, the Deltas had been pushed down halfway down the mountain, being chased by the second wave of Lunarian Royal Guards, accompanied by Heavy Walkers. The Deltas took cover in some shacks some distance from the clearing. They needed to stop the Lunarians here. Meanwhile, at the summit, Watatsuki no Yorihime and the third wave of Royal Guards traversed the portal. Yorihime first noticed the horrific sight of the dead bodies of Royal Guards from the first wave, gunned down where they stood. Yorihime called for the commander of the 2nd Platoon.

"You idiot! These are elite Terran soldiers, experienced from endless wars, fighting on their home territory! They are not to be treated like the mindless Yokai we slaughtered a millennium ago! You lost half of your platoon to two squads of these putrid Terrans! Did you not learn anything from 15 years of war with them?!"

"Forgive me milady…"answered the Platoon leader as he kneeled to the ground.

"You are forgiven, Lieutenant, but justice must be done, for the sake of your men, whom you have failed."

"Milady, please…"

Yorihime drew her sword, and activated the blade's plasma fire. The sword's silver-blue blade was engulfed by a white-blue flame. Yorihime raised the sword above her head, and without a thought of remorse or regret, beheaded her Lieutenant with one clean strike.

"No more mistakes! Kanabo, wipe out these Terran Elites. Hopefully, 2nd platoon still has their walker and some competent soldiers down there. Take half of 1st platoon, that's 25 soldiers, and don't fail me. The rest of us will remain here and ready the gunships for take-off."

"Shit, shit, shit," Romeo creatively expressed himself as he ran towards the shacks, while he was under fire from Lunarian plasma.

"Suppressing fire, Deltas!" King ordered as he emptied another magazine from his M4. The Lunarians closed in on their position. Janissary, Spectre, King, and Zephyr were taking cover right outside the shacks, firing at the Lunarians, while Sakuya, Raven, and Angus were inside the shack. Janissary let out a devastating barrage from his M60, prompting the Lunarians to lay flat on the snow. King "Angus! Get _Shedim_ on the radio! Tell him we need air support, NOW!"

"Yes, sir!" was the reply. "_Shedim, Shedim, _this is Delta 3-3-Angus, requesting fire support, over." There was static on the radio, followed by a reply, "Delta 3-3-Angus, this is _Shedim,_ we're starting our engines and prepping for take-off, ETA 5 minutes."

"Fuck man," Angus exclaimed, "5 minutes!" Then and there, a barrage of plasma bolts penetrated the shacks' measly cover. Most of them missing the Deltas, but one bolt hit Raven's lower-left leg. "Aaaargh! Fuck," he screamed as he fell down to the ground.

King stood up, emptying another magazine from his assault rifle, killing one Royal Guard, and ordered, "Get over here, Angus! We need more MG fire! Give me the radio! Zephyr, see what you can do for Raven! Sakuya, take Zephyr's place!"

The Deltas moved fast, King and Angus switched places, while Zephyr and Sakuya switched places. Raven was writhing in pain. Despite years of training and conditioning, even a Delta isn't prepared for the extreme burning pain of a plasma bolt.

"It burns, man, ahhh shit, ahhh…" Raven was experiencing excruciating pain as the battle raged around them and Zephyr examined the wound. "It's melted all the muscle, holy shit, look at that. You're lucky it only hit the side and didn't go through your whole leg. Alright, I'll try to seal the wound. This'll hurt. A lot. Don't scream too loud."

"They're getting closer," said Sakuya. "I can see that, Sakuya," replied Janissary, "Spectre, blow it!"

"Bye, bye," whispered Spectre, putting his thumb down on a detonator. Claymore mines detonated in front of the Lunarian Royal Guards who have advanced close enough to the shacks. Sakuya popped out of cover and fired a burst from her Steyr AUG at a dazed, wounded, surviving Royal Guard to finish him off.

"Shit, that was close," said Romeo, still catching his breath, "This little hut doesn't give much cover."

"Nothing on this damn mountain can protect us from plasma bolts, Romeo," Janissary replied.

"Ammo check!" King called.

All the Deltas answered,

"I got one more belt left," said Angus.

"50 rounds on my M60," replied Janissary,

"Two 60mm H.E., Two 60mm smoke, two mags M4," from Spectre,

"One and a half M4 mags, lots and lots of knives," was Romeo's reply.

"Last mag," Raven wheezed.

"Two mags M-14," said Zephyr.

"Two magazines, AUG," followed Sakuya.

King sighed, "I'm down to my last mag," he said. "Here," Romeo told him as he tossed his one remaining extra magazine to King, "You're a better shot than me, anyway."

"Zephyr," called King, "Pull Raven down to _Seraph_, and tell them to prep for lift-off."

"Yes, sir!"

Zephyr picked up Raven, being careful not to cause further damage to Raven's leg, and started walking down the shacks, and towards the helicopter.

Heavier footsteps were heard by the Deltas. Approaching them were two Lunarian light walkers, twice as tall as a Royal Guard, and excelled at killing infantry – like the Deltas. Supporting the walkers were 25 more Royal Guards, and Kanabo.

"Oh, shit. Zephyr and Raven…." A worried Janissary expressed fear for his mates that were out in the open.

King quickly ordered the Deltas, "Janissary, get over there and help Zephyr! The rest of you, suppressing fire! Draw their attention away from Janissary! Spectre, smoke grenades!"

Spectre loaded a smoke grenade into his launcher, and fired it close to Janissary to cover their retreat. Romeo opened fire at a walker to no effect; the rounds bounced off the machine. The Lunarians spread out and began opening fire with their plasma rifles. Sakuya and Angus returned fire as Kanabo directed one of the walkers to fire at the shacks. As the firefight raged, King contacted the airbase on the radio, "

"Yokota Airbase, This is Delta 1-Actual, requesting Air support! Send in the Warthogs! Delta-1 and Delta-3 are compromised! Respond, over!"

"I'm out!" Romeo cried out, throwing his M4 to the ground after killing a Royal Guard with his last few bullets. Sakuya loaded her last magazine, and popped out of her cover, firing at and killing a Royal Guard. Plasma bolts were impacting the shacks, most of them penetrating the thin walls. Angus was hit in the chest, the plasma bolt killing him instantly. In desperation and frustration, Spectre walked out of the now ruined shack, grenade launcher in one hand, assault rifle in the other. He fired his last two 60mm grenades at the Lunarians, while spraying his M4 from the hip. His grenades stunned one of the light walkers and killed a Royal Guard, but the other light walker fired an accurate stream of heavy plasma bolts at Spectre, demolishing one of the shacks and ripping Spectre apart.

A few Royal Guards broke off from the main assault to try and catch Janissary, Zephyr, and Raven. Janissary lay down fire from his machinegun at the Royal Guards. He killed four of them before his machinegun ran out of ammunition, but another three came running after them. Janissary whispered, "Shit…"

Zephyr lay Raven down, allowing them both to fire their weapons at the Royal Guards. The three Royal Guards were killed, but not before one of them let loose a bolt that blew Zephyr's head off. "No!" cried Janissary, grabbing Zephyr's battle rifle, and killing another two Royal Guards that were coming after them. He dropped the weapon, and kept carrying Raven down the mountain.

A Royal Guard said to Kanabo, "They've stopped firing."

Kanabo slapped his helmet and told him, "I can see that, imbecile. We're going down to those structures and we're going to rip apart whatever's left of them with our blades."

"We could just gun them down, sir," was the Guard's reply.

"No. I want to kill them slowly and brutally, like the dogs they are. Guards, move in, slowly, carefully."

"Sakuya, I'm going to throw a smoke grenade," ordered King. "When it pops, run, as fast as you can, back to the chopper. Romeo and I will hold them in place until the airstrike gets here."

"Got it," she replied.

Right at that moment, helicopter blades could be heard. "What is that noise, sir?" asked as Guard to Kanabo.

Coming from around the mountain, the Blackhawk Helicopter, _Shedim_, flew over the deltas, delivering a massive barrage of firepower, its miniguns sounded like chainsaws on steroids, firing thousands of incendiary rounds at the Lunarians. It fired Hellfire missiles at the Walkers, destroying them instantly. The 30 calibre machineguns and M134 miniguns ripped apart the Lunarian Royal Guards.

Kanabo and five Royal Guards that were too close to the shacks for _Shedim_ to hit, opened fire at the helicopter.

"Go, Sakuya! Now!" King shouted.

Sakuya ran as fast as she could, Kanabo noticing her, ordering two Royal Guards to follow him into the shack.

_Shedim_ was hit plasma bolts at the tail rotor, causing it to spin uncontrollably. "We're going down!" The Lunarians kept firing at the spinning helicopter and one managed to hit a hellfire missile still attached to the helicopter, detonating it, and blowing the Helicopter apart before it hit the ground.

The surviving Kanabo and two royal Guards entered the shack. The first Royal Guard was greeted with an entire magazine's worth of M4 Carbine rounds. King threw the M4 at the second Royal Guard, and followed up by kicking the Guard in the abdomen. Kanabo lit up his Naginata and tried to stab King, but he was greeted by three throwing knives courtesy of Romeo. The knives bounced off Kanabo's armour, save one, which hit his vulnerable neck-area. Kanabo, enraged, charged at Romeo, who drew a Kukri and cut Kanabo's Naginata handle. Kananbo dropped his weapon and blocked the next slash of Romeo's Kukri, hitting Romeo's arm, putting pressure on it until Romeo released the Kukri. Romeo kicked Kanabo's knee, pushing him back, allowing Romeo to throw a knife at the Royal Guard who was already choking King. The knife impacted the neck of the Royal Guard. King kicked the stomach of the Guard, gripped the knife in the Guard's neck, twisted it, and pulled it out of the neck. The Guard howled in pain as he died.

Kanabo took hold of Romeo and slammed him on the shack's walls, breaking a few of Romeo's ribs. Romeo drew a dagger and attempted to stab Kanabo, who chuckled and kicked him before he got in range. Before he could hit Rome again, Kanabo felt rounds bouncing off his armour. King drew his sidearm, and was shooting 9mm pistol rounds at Kanabo. The pistol rounds harmlessly bounced off Kanabo as he walked toward King. Another Royal Guard entered the shack and aimed his plasma rifle at Romeo. Romeo threw a knife at the Royal Guard's right hand, causing him to shout and drop his gun. Romeo got up, ran towards the Guard, and slashed the Guard's throat. Romeo, exhausted and injured, fell to the ground.

Kanabo pushed King against the wall and beat him with his fists, King unable to reply to Kanabo's flurry of punches. Romeo saw King being beaten to death by Kanabo. His body wasn't responding. He couldn't get up. Kanabo's punches made King spit blood from his mouth. Romeo inhaled deeply, and gathering whatever strength he had left in him, managed to stand up. Holding his broken ribcage with his left arm, and picking up his Kukri with his right, he limped towards Kanabo. Kanabo was about to throw another deadly punch when he felt a tremendous amount of pain in his behind.

"How do you like Kukri up your ass, bitch!" Romeo exclaimed. He shoved the Kukri machete up Kanabo's buttocks, causing him to howl in pain. Kanabo was in shock and couldn't react. Romeo broke Kanabo's arms and legs, and pushed Kanabo against the wall. King, who was still conscious, managed to put up a fist, and smashed it on Kanabo's visor, shattering the visor.

"I want to see your face, before I kill you, tough guy," King said as he pulled out his combat knife. King began pushing the knife into Kanabo's forehead, as slowly as he could. The Lunarian, his limbs broken and his body in shock, was helpless as he screeched in pain, the knife slowly but surely piercing through the skin. King started turning the knife around, the blood and flesh on Kanabo's forehead now horribly distorted. When King felt that the knife touched the bone, he thrust the knife hard into the skull. King exhaled rapidly afterwards, falling to the ground, unable to walk. Romeo sat down beside him.

They heard more footsteps approaching. Romeo pulled out a _Balisong _knife and started doing flipping tricks with it. He chuckled as he said to King,

"We're not getting saved, are we, Cap'n?"

"No," King replied, "But we'll take a few of them with us."

"Haha," Romeo laughed with a smile, "What artillery are those Warthogs packing?"

King smirked, and turned to Romeo, "Well, first they're going to rain down 30 millimetre rounds from their cannons, and then it's going to rain High Explosive and White Phosphorus all the way up the mountain."

"Sounds like fun," Romeo whispered. He flipped the _Balisong_ closed, and put it back in his pocket. "Been an honour serving with you, James," Romeo addressed King by his real name, patting King on the shoulder.

King smiled, and answered, "You too, Robin."

A squad of Lunarians came in to find their comrades brutally killed, and pointed their guns at the two Deltas.

The helicopter rotors of _Seraph_ were spinning and the Blackhawk was ready for take-off. "Sakuya," Janissary called out, "Where are the others?"

Sakuya ran to the Blackhawk and climbed on it, sitting beside Janissary. "Angus and Spectre are dead. Romeo and King…I don't know. King told me to run."

"We have no time," the pilot interrupted, "We have two A-10 Warthogs going to make a pass. The top half of this mountain is going to be showered in bullets, HE, and WH soon enough."

Janissary, pulling himself together, ordered, "If King had you run back here, I assume he and Romeo were going to hold the shacks so the Lunarians wouldn't have time to escape the fire. Pilot…let's go."

As they were taking off, Sakuya saw two full Lunarian gunships fly off, away from the mountain. "You see that?" asked the pilot. "Yeah," replied Janissary, "They're headed where we're headed. C'mon! We need to catch up!"

"Those gunships look like they can carry around 15 men each," Sakuya told Janissary.

"Well, shit," said Raven, "How are we going to fight that?"

"Misery 2-6, this is Misery 2-7, copy, over?" The pilot of one of the A-10 Warthogs spoke over the radio. The A-10 warthog was a different kind of airplane. To some, it wasn't even an airplane; it was considered more of a gun with wings and an engine. The A-10 Warthog was basically a 30 millimetre anti-tank Gatling cannon with a fuselage, cockpit, wings, and engine built around it. Under the Warthog's wings, rockets, dumb bombs, JDAMs, and other ordnance could be attached to increase the deadliness of the Warthog.

Today, Callsigns Misery 2-6 and Misery 2-7 were serving an appetizer of 30 millimetre armour-piercing goodness, followed up by the popular High Explosives bombs, and the fiery hot White Phosphorus Warheads. They weren't just going to rip them apart, they were going to rip them apart, blow them into bits, and then burn the hell out of them. Just to be thorough. When facing Lunarians, there is no such thing as "Overkill."

"Misery 2-7, Misery 2-6 receives, over," was the reply on Misery 2-7's radio.

"So, let me get this straight," Misery 2-7 asked, "are these guys are like, Moon Nazis?"

"Yeah, pretty much, but I think Moon Fascists is the more politically correct term," replied Misery 2-6.

Misery 2-7 interrupted, "Oh, really, huh?"

"I mean Nazis worship Hitler, God knows what these guys follow," Misery 2-6 continued.

"How the hell did you end up in the Airforce, again?" Misery 2-7 jokingly asked.

"Alright, alright. Pay attention. Approaching target. What the hell is up with those clouds?"

The two A-10s were very close to Mount Fuji. The air around the mountain was cloudy, but once in close proximity, the pilots noticed that the weather was clear.

Misery 2-6, spoke on his radio, "2-7, I don't care about whatever comment you're about to make on the weather. Whatever it is, that flashing light on the summit is causing it, and we're destroying it in addition to all the Moon bastards on the mountain."

"Copy that, boss. HE and WH armed. Trigger finger's getting jumpy."

"Right. Ready to fire on my mark."

At the summit, the Lunarians were prepping one more Gunship for take-off when they saw the A-10s.

"Mark!"

The A-10s opened fire with their 30mm Gatling cannons, ripping apart Royal Guards here and there. As they made their pass over the mountain, they dropped numerous High Explosive bombs, which detonated on the summit and various other parts of the mountain, destroying the third gunship, and the shacks. The Warthogs went around for another pass. Lunarians were blasted apart by the explosives. The summit of Mount Fuji looked like the volcano had erupted again. Well, almost. The Warthogs just had to add one more thing. After expending their remaining 30mm ammunition, the Warthogs dropped a load of White Phosphorus warheads, detonating above the heads of the surviving Royal Guards, burning the whole area to a crisp, leaving little evidence of the battle of Fuji Yama.

Yorihime and 27 Royal Guards managed to escape the fate of their comrades on Fuji. They were on the two gunships, headed where moon-dust tracer was pointing them to. 100 Royal Guards came through that portal.

Delta Squad lost six of their best. The Lunarian Royal Guard lost seventy-four.


	15. Tertia, Chapter 5: Land of Illusions

**Chapter 5: Land of Illusions**

The night was far from waning. The full moon brilliantly and ominously gazed down upon the Earth. Unbeknownst to the world, a decisive battle had just been fought on the summit of Mount Fuji: the final engagement between the two warring factions of the Lunar War

Sakuya, Raven, and Janissary were on board the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, callsign _Seraph_, and they were en route back to the observatory where Delta Team 3 was stationed. They removed their winter gear and readied for another fight.

"Pilot," Janissary shouted, "Are you getting any reply from Delta-3?"

"Negative. Radio silence."

"Damn it."

Several minutes later, _Seraph_'s pilot caught a glimpse of something in the distance. It was smoke, and it was close to the observatory.

"They're still there," Raven observed.

Janissary turned to him and asked, "Who; Our Deltas or the Lunarians?"

"If we're lucky," Sakuya answered, "It'll be both."

The helicopter's spinning blades were noisy and attracted attention, but there was no sign of the Lunarian transport gunships in the air yet.

Raven then suggested, "We're making too much noise. Bring us down here, and we'll take them by surprise."

"Affirmative," responded the pilot. The pilot spotted a clearing and approached it carefully. He landed the helicopter as fast as he could, and as soon as it touched ground, Janissary and Sakuya jumped off and started running as quickly and quietly as they could to the observatory.

Raven, his ankle destroyed by the plasma wound, remained.

"Good luck, you two," he said.

* * *

><p>Sakuya and Janissary heard the sounds of gunfire and plasma bolts being exchanged at the observatory. They ran faster as they began to see flashes of blue plasma and muzzle flashes from guns, but before they caught sight of the observatory, the firing stopped.<p>

The two were at the edge of the forest near the observatory. They could hear commands being shouted in the Lunarian tongue, not quite different from Japanese. They each hid behind a tree, and peered out to see the observatory.

They were too late. On the front yard of the observatory, the Lunarians were boarding their gunships. Sakuya saw that the smoke had come from a small campfire, no doubt started by the Deltas, as two bloodied Delta Squad soldiers lay dead beside the fire, and she doubted the Lunarians would go through the trouble of creating a campfire while slaughtering Terrans.

Sakuya readied her assault rifle, when Janissary stopped her,

"No," he whispered, "We're too late, and they are too many. Let them go; some of our boys could still be alive."

"They're not leaving so easily. You're going to let them kill your comrades and escape to the moon, where you'll be bound by truce not to venture to ever again? You'll never find your vengeance or your peace with them, no matter which you choose to pursue after this. Let's kill them."

"We can't take them in this position. Sakuya," Janissary sighed, "they're looking for you too. You'll get your chance, but I need to find whatever information I can here."

"Alright," Sakuya reluctantly agreed. She lowered her weapon and listened.

"Tell me what they're saying," Janissary asked, "Wait. Is that a woman's voice I hear?"

Sakuya heard the all-too noticeable arrogant voice of Yorihime, barking her orders at the Royal Guardsmen.

"Move it! Lift us off now! We're not done yet! Get us to the next dust concentration! Go!"

"At once, Marshal! We're just getting our men loaded—"

"Well, load your asses faster! My sister will be finished in a few hours and she'll be our only way off this mound of filth! We have until then to find the half-breed!"

The Lunarian gunships lifted off with all haste, leaving the observatory a silent, bloody mess.

"Damn them," Janissary said, "Damn that bitch. Who was she?"

"I don't know," Sakuya answered, "but the way she talked and commanded those guardsmen… She must be royalty; probably a princess."

"But the Lunar Princess is in Switzerland right now for the treaty signing."

Sakuya thought about it. He was right. Who was she, then, Sakuya thought. She pushed that aside for later. There could still be Deltas alive and wounded in the observatory.

"We can talk about that later; let's search the observatory."

"Right," Janissary replied.

Sakuya and Janissary ran to the observatory as soon as the gunships lifted off.

* * *

><p>Janissary examined the two Deltas killed by the fire. "It's Dollar and Tengu. They were shot in the back by plasma. They didn't see 'em coming."<p>

He took their dog tags and followed Sakuya inside. To their horror, the walls were all blood splattered, and no piece of furnishing was left unturned or undamaged. On the floor lay Tarantula's body, though his left arm and head were no longer connected to it, and his right arm still held his shotgun. The points where he was cut were burned by the plasma coated blade of a Lunar Katana. Around him were the bodies of two Lunar Royal Guardsmen.

"At least he went down fighting," Sakuya sighed.

Sakuya walked over the bodies and moved into the kitchen, where he found Jack's upper torso on top of the kitchen table, and his legs on the floor below. Where Jack was cut in half, his organs seemed to have been severely scorched, more so than Tarantula. Where Jack's spine was severed, the bone was so burned it was turned to ash.

"Whoever that woman was," she told Janissary as he entered the kitchen, "she has a very hot sword, and she knows how to use it…"

She handed Janissary his dog tags. He shook his head and turned around.

"Whoever she is, she'll pay. I'll check out the top of the observatory."

Sakuya looked at Jack's severed corpse again; he had been eating when Yorihime attacked. The Lunarians were predictable, yes, but when they catch you off guard, they attack with quick and devastating force, leaving you no time to react.

Sakuya and the Deltas expected the Lunar forces on Fuji Yama, and the Deltas made them pay dearly for it: The Lunarians fought on the low ground for a good portion of the battle, in near-zero visibility conditions; things the Lunarians were not used to. When the battle turned the other way, the Lunarians still had to deal with the thick snow; something they do not have on the moon.

The Lunarians still won Fuji Yama, however, but now their force was reduced to a third of their main incursion. Sakuya could still win.

She turned around when she heard soft footsteps behind her. In the living room she found a girl who looked no less than thirteen, with wavy hair that was a strange grey-greenish colour, and wearing a yellow summer dress and a black hat.

"Who are you?" Sakuya asked

The girl turned to face Sakuya. She wore a light smile on her face, despite all the death around her.

"Oh, you saw me… I didn't… I'm sorry for intruding," the girl said, "I thought those moon people were dangerous, so I hid."

Sakuya wondered how this strange girl possibly ended up here.

"What are you doing out here?"

The girl answered, "I was wondering if Mr Hartmann was still here."

"Hans Hartmann?" Sakuya wondered out loud.

"Yes! The one with the books!" she replied.

Sakuya remembered. Where was he?

As if he heard their conversation from above, Janissary shouted from the top of the spiral stair case, "Sakuya, I found Hans! He's still alive! Hurry!"

"He's still here," Sakuya said, turning to the girl, asking, "What's your name?"

"Koishi," the girl answered.

"Koishi," Sakuya called her, "just sit down somewhere for now. I need to check if Mr Hartmann is okay …okay?"

"Okay."

* * *

><p>Sakuya quickly made her way up the spiral staircase to the telescope room, where she found the telescope mangled and cut apart, the metals still glowing hot from the plasma. On the floor, against the wall was Hans, his right hand clutching his abdomen. He had been cut badly.<p>

"How'd you survive?" asked Janissary, to which Hans replied,

"I stepped back and didn't take the entire blade. I fell and played dead. But it looks like I won't have to play for long…" Hans grunted and bit his lips in pain. He wasn't going to make it.

Janissary knew he didn't have much time. He had to get information.

"Where's Callahan?" he asked.

Hans was breathing heavily. He looked up and answered, "…run off when he heard the plasma outside. I don't know where… I don't even know if he made it."

"Other than you three, what were they looking for?" Janissary continued.

"They weren't looking for me," he answered, "They were looking for… Eric… and Sakuya… and Eirin…"

"Who's Eirin?" Janissary asked him, confused.

"I don't… I… can't."

Sakuya knelt by his side and asked him softly, "Do you know where they're headed?"

"The mansion…" Hans told her faintly, "… they're looking for you, Sakuya."

"How would they know where it is?"

"The same way they found us."

"I'm sorry, Hans," Sakuya said to him as she stood up.

"It's alright. None of this was your fault."

Sakuya quickly made her way down the staircase.

Janissary locked his right arm with Hans', "You did good, soldier," Janissary told him.

"I fought aliens on the moon," Hans jested, "would you expect any less?"

"Still have a sense of humour, Hans?"

"I intend to die happy," Hans let go from the handshake, "_Auf wiedersehen_, Delta."

"Likewise."

* * *

><p>Janissary turned and followed Sakuya down the stairs. As Hans closed his eyes to await death, he heard small footsteps coming up the stairs. Koishi climbed up the staircase to see Hans looking at her direction.<p>

"Koishi?" Hans said.

"Yes, I'm here," Koishi said with a smile as if Hans weren't dying, "You're bleeding to death."

"Oh, Koishi, do you even feel emotions?"

"No."

"Do you understand what's going on here?"

"Yes."

"But you didn't run, or do anything?"

"I had no desire to."

"I've let you read a lot of my uncle's books, Koishi. Before I go, tell me, what do you think?"

"I don't know. I just read the books. I'm going now."

Koishi walked back down the stairs. Hans closed his eyes and whispered to himself,

"What a ditz… it's like she does everything subconsciously… she doesn't have a care in the world... what I'd give for a heart like hers..."

Hans' body numbed; he felt the pain go away, and his life faded.

* * *

><p>"Who's Eirin?" Janissary kept asking, "Why do they need you and Eric?"<p>

"What's the name of the princess?" Sakuya asked. The two walked out of the observatory and Sakuya was walking at a faster pace than normal. The only thing keeping her from running was Janissary's questions and pleas not to go alone.

"Toyohime, I think her name was."

"Princesses can have sisters," Sakuya told him, and continued, "That woman we heard earlier was Watatsuki no Yorihime, the younger sister of Princess, Toyohime."

"How do you know her?"

"She's older than you might think, Janissary. I've heard of the Watatsuki sisters before. I just hadn't the slightest idea that one was now the Princess of the Moon and her sister the Marshal of the Lunar Defence Corps. Eirin is a Lunarian, the mentor of the sisters. I know you're going to ask, and here's the answer: I have no idea where she is. Eric was held captive by the Lunarians. He knows things. I bailed him out and killed a lot of Lunarian scientists. That's why they're after us."

"By the way you talk of the sisters, they seem like terrible people."

"Sure are, and I've never even met them. Since Yorihime is leading the incursion, I'll have to be relentless."

"You can't go in there alone. Even with your skills, you can't stand beat them."

"I'm not alone; I had the mansion's staff bring out the guns for the occasion."

Janissary sighed, "How long will they last against Lunarian Royal Guardsmen with air support?"

Sakuya turned to face him. "Not very long, and that's why I need to get there. Are you sure you can't help me?"

"We've had our revenge on the mountain, if at too high a cost. Raven and I can't help you anymore."

"So that's it? In the end, you're going to let them win?"

"We can't win either way… and I need to bring all of this back. Our mission was not to stop the Lunarians at all costs; our mission was to get answers. I got them."

"That was your mission. I'm not coming with you; I'm going back."

"Damn it, Sakuya… fine. Since there's no swaying you, take this."

Janissary tossed car keys to Sakuya. She caught the keys, and looked at Janissary.

"This way," he said walking in a different direction. Janissary led her to the jeeps the Deltas had used to get to the observatory, and pointed her to the front one.

"Try not to blow it up," Janissary told her.

"You wouldn't know if I did anyway," Sakuya replied as she climbed on the jeep and started the engine.

"You can't do any harm to the Princess, Sakuya," Janissary warned, "Neither can you damage or destroy her ship. That would destroy the entire treaty."

"I'm aware of that."

"Godspeed, Sakuya."

* * *

><p>Sakuya revved the engine and started driving to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She was hoping to get there before they found it. She didn't even know if they could find the mansion, but they found the observatory, so she wouldn't take any chances.<p>

Janissary ran back to the helicopter and ordered the pilot to start the engines.

"Where's Sakuya?" Raven asked him.

Janissary looked at Raven and shook his head, telling him, "She's going back to the mansion. That's where they're going next."

"And where are we going?"

"Back to the airbase."

"You can't just let her go all by herself!"

"We have to. We're done here. I've no intentions of going above and beyond the call."

"To be honest, Janissary, we've been acting above and beyond the call from the moment we set out for Fuji."

The helicopter's engines hummed on and its blades slowly began rotating. When the helicopter blades were rotating at their fastest, the Blackhawk took off and started for Yokota Airbase.

A few minutes later, Raven asked Janissary,

"You want to go back, do you?"

"We can't. Not if we want to live. Even then, we don't know where the mansion is."

Raven smirked and said to Janissary, "Ha. But we do," handing out photos of satellite images of the mansion.

"Fuck you, Raven," Janissary cursed, "Well, King and Romeo would probably agree with you, those goddamned heroes. Pilot! Turn us around!"

* * *

><p>Sakuya stopped the car a few meters away from the mansion, just out of the front gates' view. She was too late. One of the Lunar gunships was in the air above the mansion. Only a few minutes ago, she could hear an exchange of plasma and gunfire, but when she arrived, there was no more gunfire.<p>

She ran to the gate, and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the silhouette of a body impaled in the chest by a spear by the front gate. She walked slowly to the gate and saw that it was Antoine. She saw that the other gunship had landed, and many of the mansion servants lay there dead. There were at least twenty Royal Guardsmen in the front courtyard. Going in through that gate was suicide.

Sakuya ran quickly and quietly through the forest around the mansion and found the back-gate unguarded. Sakuya wondered what happened to Remilia, to Patchouli, to Meiling… did they end up like Antoine and the others in the courtyard? No, they couldn't have been defeated that easily. Patchouli's a witch, and Remilia is a vampire. She didn't know what Meiling was, but she was the gate guard; if she were to die, it would've been at the gate.

Sakuya brushed off the thoughts. She had to kill Yorihime. That's what mattered now. She walked through the path of the dying rose gardens of the mansion. Around the rose gardens were hedges that used to be expertly maintained, but have since been abandoned and left to grow on their own. The roses used to be so bright and red, and full of life. In the past few years, they'd turned mostly brown, with only faint shades of red. Much of the courtyard had given way to weeds and other plant life to grow. It was a mess.

Two Royal Guardsmen were standing guard close to the back door of the mansion. Sakuya took a large piece of broken pavement from the courtyard and tossed it into the maze of roses, vines, and weeds as she took cover behind one of the hedges. It made a crunching sound as it landed on the plants, and one of the guardsmen signalled to the other to cover him while he checked it out. Sakuya drew one of her machetes, and sprinted at the Royal Guard that was standing watch.

Her footsteps made no noise, despite the speed of her running. She was graceful and elegant, even in her desperate state of mind. When the Guardsman finally realized something was upon him, a machete slashed his throat apart, destroying his vocal chords and preventing him from alerting anyone. Sakuya caught his body and lay it down gently before running into the mansion's kitchen. She only had a few seconds before the other guard saw it and alerted everyone.

* * *

><p>"You must be the master of this establishment, correct?" Yorihime said slyly as she entered Remilia's study, where Remilia was seated on a large red French renaissance-era armchair behind a desk, teacup and saucer in her hands.<p>

"Why yes," Remilia answered calmly before taking another sip of her tea.

"By your eyes and wings, it's really easy to tell that you're a bloodsucker," Yorihime started, walking closer to Remilia, "Normally, that brings up a bad connotation, but I like what you've done here: enslaving humans to do all the work, enthralling humans to be cut up and served to you, drinking their blood from a tea cup, maintaining a vast library, and even harbouring a magician."

Yorihime had Patchouli spared for questioning as she was a witch, and the Moon was interested in how magic had progressed on Earth.

Remilia smiled before taking another sip and replying, "Thank you, but tell me this: why did you kill all my servants?"

Yorihime sighed, "I'm tired of all these formalities. You are still lower than a Lunarian, after all. Enough of your games, little bitch! You know why!" Yorihime gripped her katana's sheath with her left hand and turned it to the side in preparation for a quick drawing slash, and threatened,

"Tell me where your dog is before I sever that pretty head from your little neck!"

"Begging your pardon, but I don't have a dog."

"Foolish child; I'm talking about the silver-haired half-breed who servers you!"

Remilia sneered, and then began laughing at Yorihime, flaring her anger even more. Just then, one of the Lunar Guardsmen shouted, "She's here!"

Remilia stopped laughing and gave Yorihime and uncomfortable look. At this range, a drawing slash from Yorihime's sword would definitely hit Remilia. Yorihime smirked and said, "Guess I don't need your help after all. Thank you for your hospitality."

As soon as she finished, Yorihime's quickly gripped her sword with her right hand, while still holding the sheath sideways with her left, activating the sword-fire, and making a lightning-fast drawing strike, cutting Remilia's chair in two.

Remilia, however, reacted just as quickly. A hundredth of a second before the flaming blade touched her, Remilia transformed herself into a cloud of bats, escaping out her window.

It all happened in a split-second, and afterwards, Yorihime cursed, deactivated her sword-fire, walked out of the room and shouted, "Kill them!" as she descended the mansion's wide stairs, holding the railing with her left hand and her katana with the other. In the main hall at the bottom of the staircase were two dead Royal Guardsmen. As she slid her hand along the railing, a throwing knife whizzed from above and embedded itself on the railing. Yorihime stopped moving her hand before it hit.

* * *

><p>"Up here," Sakuya said. She was standing on the railing of the mansion's mezzanine.<p>

"Finally, we meet! What do they call you?" Yorihime called to her.

"Izayoi Sakuya."

"Izayoi," Yorihime whispered to herself, and then said, "the sixteenth night? That's cute. You won't get to see the night after the full moon, Sakuya."

"If so, neither will you."

Sakuya disappeared and in an instant several knives materialized from nowhere and flew at Yorihime, but she successfully deflected them with her sword, and saw Sakuya at the bottom of the staircase.

"I don't intend for you to die here, Sakuya, oh no, I need to interrogate you first," Yorihime said with a smile, "You deserve a public execution, but a simple beheading won't do, no? You deserve something slow, something agonizing and terribly morbid…"

"Well, at least you're honest," Sakuya jested, "what do you have in mind?"

"Did you know that a bamboo shoot can grow up to three feet per day? I was thinking of stripping you naked in the Lunar Capital's largest public bamboo garden, tying you down, and spreading your legs directly under a young bamboo shoot and then watching you squeal as the bamboo plant grows and thrusts itself into you, and eventually goes through you."

Yorihime burst into laughter when she saw Sakuya's disgusted face.

"You can keep your sadistic fantasies to yourself now; I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you."

"Strong words," Yorihime commented, "but how will you back them up when I'm holding everyone in this mansion hostage?"

"You killed everyone!"

"Look outside, idiot."

Sakuya walked outside. The bright full moon lit the courtyard. Patchouli and five servants were still alive, lined up in the middle of the courtyard, by the fountain. Sakuya counted twenty-three Guardsmen, and in the open courtyard, she wouldn't be able to defeat them. Sakuya cursed herself. She was in such a rush that she had forgotten her assault rifle.

"I'm willing to be merciful, Sakuya," Yorihime told her. She was standing right beside Sakuya. She wanted to stab Yorihime until her organs flew out of her gut, but she couldn't. Yorihime had her. One wrong move and they all died.

"Where's my pet? You have my thanks for rescuing her, but you stole her from me, Sakuya." asked Yorihime.

"Reisen?" Sakuya replied.

"There's a smart girl! At least you're straight to the point, unlike your bratty master. How'd you come to be a maid for that delinquent? Haha, I don't want to know. Like I said, where is she?"

Sakuya had brought Reisen to Yukari to be given to Eirin, but Sakuya knew Yorihime was looking for Eirin, but she had no idea where she was. One mention of her, and Sakuya would be at a loss for answers.

"We crash landed in a shallow lake that night. I lost my consciousness, and when I woke up, she was gone. She probably escaped into the forest."

"I know a liar when I hear one, but I hear they've done terrible things to her eyes, so I can let that pass."

Sakuya sighed in relief.

"I'm sure you know Yagokoro Eirin," Yorihime said to her, "what Lunarian hasn't heard of Eirin?"

"I've heard of her," Sakuya replied, "but I don't know her. She disappeared a long time ago, right?"

"Ha, that's right," Yorihime said loudly, "but I still think you're lying, though. No one infiltrates the Lunar Capital like that without knowledge of the inside, and only Eirin and your mother could've given you that information. Both had gone missing nearly a thousand years ago, and your mother resurfaced in a message a hundred years ago, from the country you call 'England.' Apparently she had fallen in love with a man there and bore a child…"

"Me?"

"Obviously. And she was dead when you were still a dirty little infant, so only Eirin remains. Where is she?"

Tears began falling from Sakuya's eyes. She knew. Yorihime knew; she'd figured out everything.

"I… I don't know," she said.

"Acceptable answer; I couldn't find a trace of her either, but neither could I find a trace of Reisen. One last thing…"

"…anything."

"Hand over the Luna Dial."

Sakuya was clutching her pocket watch in her left hand. She quickly handed it over to Yorihime.

"Well, this is really it. Is this your blood?" Yorihime said as if talking to herself, "Disgusting." She pressed the buttons on the watch, but nothing would happen.

"Ahh, clever, that bitch was. It's locked to the blood of the owner," Yorihime told Sakuya, "Your mother was clever, but she was a traitor nonetheless. You've been very cooperative Sakuya, and for that, I'll pay you back."

* * *

><p>Yorihime nodded her head at the Guardsmen behind Patchouli and the servants, and they fired their plasma rifles at the heads of the servants, but not Patchouli.<p>

"NO!" Sakuya screamed, causing Yorihime to burst into laughter.

"Sorry, I can't stand the presence of humans; they're disgusting, almost as disgusting as half-breeds like you."

"Shut up, you Bitch!" Sakuya screamed, drawing her machetes and slashing wildly at Yorihime who easily parried and blocked Sakuya's blows, and then proceeded to push her back.

"You dirty slut!" Yorihime called Sakuya, "Guards, kill her!"

Most of the Guardsmen turned to shoot at Sakuya, but their attention was diverted when the full moon was silhouetted by a winged girl with large vampire-bat wings. The silhouette disappeared from sight and into the night, and in a flash smashed down into the courtyard, killing two Royal Guards and knocking back the rest.

It was Remilia, armed with her spear, Gungnir. In the smoke, she helped Patchouli up, and gave her a book.

"Can't you witches do magic without these spellbooks?" Remilia asked.

"If I could, I would've figured out how a century ago," Patchouli replied.

The Lunarians diverted their attention from Sakuya to face Remilia and Patchouli, allowing Sakuya to continue fighting Yorihime. Sakuya attacked again, this time more calculated and graceful, giving Yorihime little opportunity to counter-attack. Yorihime stepped back into the mansion to escape the flurry of Sakuya's two blades. Sakuya quickly followed, and the duel resumed in the mansion's main hall.

* * *

><p>Patchouli quickly recited a magical shield incantation that enveloped her and Remilia in a bubble of barrier energy, shielding them from the barrage of plasma fire from the Lunarians around them.<p>

"We have to think of something quick, Mistress!" Patchouli worried, "The shield will collapse!"

"There are too many of them," Remilia remarked, "Where's China?"

"Taking care of your sister," replied Patchouli.

"That's it!" Remilia told her,

"Cast a flash spell and lure some of them into the library basement. I'll take care of the flyer," Remilia directed, pointing to the gunship that was also pounding the shield with plasma fire.

"Easier said than done, but here goes," Patchouli told Remilia before saying as loud as she could, "We can't let them get to the library basement in the far-left wing!"

Patchouli quickly released the flash incantation as the shield fell, temporarily blinding some of the guards as Remilia propelled herself into the air, and lunged at the Lunarian gunship. At the same time, five Guardsmen ran into the mansion to find the library basement.

The gunship fired its plasma cannons, and it hit Remilia's left wing and left arm before she was able to thrust her spear into the gunship. She howled in pain as the plasma burned her wing and arm, falling for a second, but managing to get lift again.

Patchouli disappeared in the flash and reappeared behind a couple of Royal Guardsmen, blasting them away with a fire spell.

Remilia was trying to balance herself when she turned to see the gunship charging its plasma cannons at her.

Before the gunship could fire at her, the gunship was hit by several bullets. In the chaos of the fighting, everyone neglected the ominous sound of helicopter blades approaching the mansion. The gunship turned to face the fire, and it was _Seraph_, the Blackhawk helicopter. Raven was on the side-mounted M240 heavy machinegun, firing at the airborne gunship and pointing the gun down to fire at the Lunar Guardsmen below, who were scrambling to find cover.

Janissary was on the other side of the helicopter, and with M79 grenade launcher in hand, fired a 40mm grenade at the grounded gunship and scoring a lucky hit on the gunship's internal plasma battery, causing it the gunship to explode in a cloud of blue fire and smoke.

The other gunship, however, had turned and locked its plasma cannons onto _Seraph_.

"Shit! Take evasive action!" shouted Raven, but there was no room or time to manoeuvre. The gunship fired its cannons at the helicopter, hitting the blades, and causing the helicopter to spiral out of control.

"Hang on!" Janissary shouted.

The helicopter crashed onto the courtyard, cockpit first, killing the pilot instantly. At that moment, Patchouli was on the other side, using smaller magic shields to deflect single plasma bolts.

Janissary pulled Raven out of the burning Blackhawk, but a plasma bolt hit Janissary in the back, and went through and out his abdomen, killing him instantly.

"No! Ahmet!" Raven shouted. The Royal Guardsman that killed Janissary drew his Katana and ran toward the crippled Raven.

Raven fired his MP5 sub-machinegun desperately at the Guardsman, but the 9mm bullets bounced off the Guardsman's armour. The Guardsman thrust his sword into Raven's chest, and pulled it out. Just at that moment, the burning helicopter exploded, killing the Royal Guard.

Remilia swooped down and impaled a Guardsman with Gungnir, flying back up again and brutally forcing the Guardsman's body off the spear with a wild and powerful wave of the spear, nearly ripping the body in half as it fell from the air.

The remaining gunship turned to face her again, but Remilia was faster this time. She dodged the plasma cannon, and seeing that Patchouli was cornered and tired from using many spells, decided to swoop down and help her, afraid that Patchouli might experience an asthma attack in the middle of the fight.

* * *

><p>Sakuya and Yorihime duelled until they reached the dining room. Sakuya swung her machetes, but Yorihime was fast, almost unnaturally so, dodging or parrying all her attacks. Sakuya was relentless, however, leaving no chance for Yorihime to take the offensive.<p>

Yorihime listened as she fought. She could hear Sakuya's breaths getting heavier. She was tiring. She allowed Sakuya few more seconds of aggression, and when she noticed Sakuya's strikes were slightly more delayed, she counter-attacked.

A slash from Sakuya's machete was parried perfectly by Yorihime, giving her an opening to attack. Yorihime slashed sideward, but Sakuya blocked the strike with her other machete, albeit poorly. Sakuya dodged out of Yorihime's follow-up strike, parried another slash from Yorihime, and attempted to counter-slash, but Yorihime hit Sakuya with the pommel of her sword, causing her to stagger backwards and trip. Yorihime threw a downward slash to finish Sakuya off, but she rolled under the dinner table and to the other side, still on the ground.

"Not even going to stand up anymore? Pathetic." Yorihime taunted.

Yorihime took the Luna Dial from one of her armour compartments, and held it in her left hand.

"You're quite incompetent without this toy, aren't you?" she said to Sakuya. Sakuya began giggling.

"I'm surprised, Yorihime. You've figured everything else out; I'm surprised you couldn't tell why I gave you the pocket watch without reluctance."

Yorihime smiled, "I assumed I had broken you."

"Oh, Yorihime. I don't need the watch anymore."

"What?"

"I've become bound to the watch. With excessive usage, the space-time manipulation of the watch becomes a natural ability. I found out how to do it yesterday."

Sakuya smirked as her left eye's iris suddenly changed from blue to red. Yorihime confident smile turned into shock as Sakuya disappeared, and reappeared right beside Yorihime, Sakuya's slash already in progress. Yorihime barely blocked the attack, and counter-struck Sakuya with her sword.

Yorihime saw Sakuya's left iris flash into red again, and spun her katana around her as soon as she immaterialized and materialized behind her, catching the machete with her sword. Yorihime turned to face her, parrying another two slash by Sakuya as she turned the rest of her body to face Sakuya properly.

At that moment, a loud explosion shook the entire mansion.

* * *

><p>Remilia turned around to see that a large portion of the mansion wall had collapsed behind her, and from the smoke emerged a girl, even more youthful in appearance than Remilia, with short, blonde hair, red eyes, pale skin like Remilia's, wearing a red dress, and on her back, strange swings that appear to be made of iron and prism shards, with eight crystals hanging from the wings, and from her back to the wingtips, the crystals were coloured light blue, blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, light green, and then light blue again. In each of her arms, she held a dead Lunarian Royal Guard.<p>

The girl's strength was so unlike her appearance; her claws had pierced through the Lunarian combat armour, through skin and bone, to reach and crush the Guardsmen's hearts. She threw the bodies in opposite directions walked out into the courtyard, smiling. She turned to Remilia, and shouted at her,

"It's about time you invited me to play!"

Remilia gave a sinister smile to the Lunarians around her.

"Her name is Flandre," she told them, "Play nice."

Flandre shot up into the sky, and as the gunship moved to intercept her, it was hit by a surface-to-air Stinger missile, causing the gunship to lose control and crash in the forest. Flandre crashed back down, killing three Lunarians instantly.

The main gate was kicked open, and Eric Callahan charged in, carrying the Stinger launcher on his left shoulder, and an M4 carbine with his right hand. He dropped the empty Stinger launcher and began firing his M4 on automatic from the hip, barely hitting anything, but his loudness and the impact of his entrance were enough to make the surviving Lunarians go into cover.

"This is for Earth, motherfuckers!" he shouted right before he ran out of ammo. The M4 made a clicking sound; it was out. Eric jumped behind the wreckage of the Blackhawk as the Lunarians got back up to return fire.

* * *

><p>Sakuya still couldn't scratch Yorihime. She was too skilled with the sword. It's as if she had learned Sakuya's fighting style in the mere minutes where they had duelled. Even if she could stop time without the pocket-watch, Sakuya still seemed predictable.<p>

Without Luna Dial, Sakuya could only stop time, not reverse, slow, or speed it up. She had not learned how to do those without the watch. In addition to that, the duration at which she could stop time is halved without the watch, but it was better than nothing. Yorihime wouldn't be able to predict all her movements, she thought.

Sakuya did not relent in her attacks. Sometimes she stopped time just to breathe easy for a very short moment and let Yorihime waste energy on a missed swing. Eventually, she pushed Yorihime into an auxiliary hallway, but what Sakuya saw outside distracted her: wreckage, death, and chaos. There was a battle going on outside. In the moonlit courtyard, Remilia, Patchouli, Flandre, and Eric fought the Lunarian guards.

But where was Meiling? Sakuya thought before narrowly dodging a swing from Yorihime's sword.

* * *

><p>Meiling popped out of the hole in the wall where Flandre punched out from mansion, patting dirt off her clothes, and coughing. She was completely unarmed. Meiling saw the fight that was going on, and a Lunarian turned on her, and seeing her unarmed fired at her with the plasma rifle. Meiling quickly rolled and dodged the first two shots, but when the third came, it came straight at her and she had no room to dodge.<p>

Meiling smiled, and made a blocking move with her fist, which was covered in wrapping. To everyone's surprise, the plasma melted the wrapping around her hand, but left her hand completely intact, the energy dissipating into the air.

"What?" Remilia said out loud, her claws still dug into the throat of a Lunarian guard, using it as a human shield while Meiling explained.

"Plasma is energy," Meiling told Remilia, "It is essential in Kung Fu to maintain equilibrium in your chi flow. When you can control the energies within, the energies outside stand no chance."

"That's the biggest pile of crap I've ever heard," Remilia said, dropping the Lunarian and moving on to the next.

Meiling continued to block the plasma bolts with her fists until she reached arms-reach of one of the Guardsmen, disarming him and landing multiple punches and kicks until the Lunarian went down.

A few Lunarians turned to face Meiling, drawing attention away from Eric, who popped out and fired short, controlled bursts with his M4 at one of the Lunarians, landing a few bullets to the head and killing the guard. Patchouli heard something in the distance, warning the others, "That doesn't sound good."

* * *

><p>Yorihime realized she was running out of time. "Enough games," she shouted as she activated her sword-fire, engulfing the gilded moon-steel blade of her Katana in white-blue fire.<p>

Early in the Lunar War, it was thought by some Earth humans that engulfing their blade in hot plasma-fire would make the Lunar swords melt or bend more easily, making them weaker as they heated up and expanded, but moon-steel is crafted such that intense heat will make the metal stronger, increasing the cutting power and pain that a blade inflicts.

When Sakuya attacked again, Yorihime cleanly cut the blades of her two machetes, melting the metal and causing Sakuya to drop them. Yorihime hit Sakuya with the pommel of her Katana again, and made a powerful kick that launched Sakuya out the window.

At the same time, Flandre and Remilia flew up into the air and swooped down together to kill the remaining Royal Guards. It was over, so they thought.

Yorihime climbed through the broken window to be greeted by two throwing knives, which were not thrown with much force, so she easily dodged them.

Sakuya was lying on the ground, bleeding. She slowly got up, drawing a dagger from one of her knife compartments and running to Yorihime, who had sheathed her sword. Yorihime caught Sakuya's wrist as her arm made a stabbing motion, and with her other arm, applied pressure on Sakuya's arm, disarming her. Yorihime then pushed Sakuya back.

"Stop! It's over!" Remilia shouted at Yorihime.

Around Yorihime stood Remilia, Patchouli, Meiling, Flandre, and Eric, ready to attack Yorihime.

"Let me play with her!" Flandre shouted.

"Any last words?" Remilia asked Yorihime.

The strange noise had gotten closer however, and Yorihime simply said, "Look behind you."

* * *

><p>Behind all of them, a large Lunarian shuttle hovered low above the ground, its rear facing the mansion. Its rear ramp opened up, revealing many more Royal Guards, with Princess Toyohime among them.<p>

"Hmph," Yorihime said, walking past the six and onto the gravity lift of the shuttle, pulling her up to the ramp.

Remilia and Flandre flew up to attack, but Toyohime brought out her fan and swung it once, causing a massive column of fire to rise, from seemingly nowhere. Remilia and Flandre fell back.

"You've really done it now, Yorihime," Toyohime said to her, observing the aftermath of the carnage below, "You didn't find anything useful! All you've achieved are the deaths of a few Earth soldiers at the cost of a hundred of our best Royal Guards! Is that what I expect from the Marshal of the Lunar Defence Corps?!"

"I… I tried, sister! I couldn't find Eirin or Reisen, but I did get the Luna Dial back."

"You… what? As in the time-space manipulation watch, that Luna Dial?"

"Yes, I did!" Yorihime said proudly taking the Luna Dial out and displaying it, turning and walking to the edge of the ramp, holding it up in her arm, showing off to Sakuya.

"I have the Lunar Dial! And when we get back, we will perfect it, mass produce it, and then the Earth will know death! Hahaha!"

"Don't do that," Toyohime cautioned.

"What are they going to do?" Yorihime replied, "This ship is untouchable. If they damage it, the treaty is off, and nobody wants that. Do you hear me, Sakuya? We're going to the moon, and you can't ever come back! You can't get your precious clock back! With this treaty, you can't touch us!"

"Don't— ugh, little sister, please, move back so we can close the ramp."

"Let me enjoy this victory for a few more moments, Toyohime."

Sakuya closed her eyes. What to do? They were unreachable, untouchable. Eric wouldn't be able to hit Yorihime with his gun. A throwing knife will be dodged. It's over… it's… "I want you to have this," echoed a voice in her head. Who? Wait… that's… Romeo! "This is a Spetsnaz ballistic knife. I pulled it from a Russian Spetsnaz operative in Laos. Press this button here and the blade will shoot out of the handle. You might find it useful for something."

Sakuya pulled the knife from one of her pockets, thinking if Romeo were still alive, Sakuya would've given him the most passionate kiss imaginable. The blade was coloured black. Perfect; it won't be seen 'till the last second, Sakuya thought.

She aimed at Yorihime, higher than her head to compensate for the distance and force of the knife, she pushed the button, and the blade launched from the handle.

Yorihime was laughing, "Hahahah—"

Her laugh was cut short when she saw a piece of metal coming straight for her. Too late to avoid and frozen in shock, Yorihime's palm was cut, the ballistic blade sliding past it, following through and also cutting Yorihime's cheek.

The sharp pain on her wrist caused her to drop the Luna Dial, and Sakuya caught it as it fell.

* * *

><p>Yorihime stepped back, and turned around, her face frozen in fear and shock. Toyohime ordered the doors closed and the ship to leave at once.<p>

Princess Toyohime looked at her little sister. Yorihime's right hand was pressed against her own left cheek, and her left hand was frozen where it was when it was hit by the knife. Tears started running down Yorihime's face.

"Get her some bandages," Princess Toyohime commanded one of the guards.

Yorihime was looking at Princess Toyohime now, Yorihime's eyes pouring tears along her face, and blood on her left cheek. "What did you have again, sister?" Toyohime asked almost mockingly.

Yorihime began sobbing, and when she did, Toyohime slapped Yorihime's right cheek.

"Do you know what you're feeling right now, little sister?" Toyohime asked, "That is pain, and by the looks of it, you haven't felt true pain in several centuries. You've forgotten the feeling, sister. I feel it every day as princess. It isn't just giving out commands. You have to take some punishment as well, now and then."

Yorihime hugged her sister. Toyohime returned the hug. "We'll get a new pet rabbit, sister, if that makes you any happier."

"It does, a little."

"Haha," Toyohime let go, and turned around, "Guardsman! Get me some peaches! I'm starving."

The Lunarian shuttle made its way back to the Lunar Capital.

* * *

><p>Back in mansion complex, Sakuya and the others were looking at all the death and destruction.<p>

"Raven and Janissary…" Sakuya said to herself, looking at the two Deltas' bodies by the helicopter.

"How are we going to fix this mess?" Remilia shouted to everyone, "My house! My house is ruined!"

"We're probably going to leave it anyway," Patchouli said, "There's no way I can move the mansion again, not in my condition. I'll definitely miss the library."

"Why do we need to move it?" asked Meiling.

"To escape the public," Sakuya answered. "We don't want anyone knowing about this places existence, but with all the noise and lights, there's bound to be plenty of attention coming our way."

"But I don't want to leave the house!" Flandre whined.

"I can help you with that," a woman's voice said to them. Sakuya turned to see Yukari, sitting on a pile of rubble.

"Yukari?!" Sakuya said, surprised, "What? How?"

"I'm sorry I missed out on the fun. I did show up just in time to see you cut Yorihime with that knife. Oh, her face, her sour expression, it was such a sweet sight!"

"Why didn't you help us?" Remilia asked her.

"I'm not to be involved in these matters, but I don't like those Watatsuki sisters at all. Anyway, we were talking about moving? I can bring you to a place. Just a warning though: it's quite dangerous and quite isolated as well. "

"That sounds nice," Meiling said, "they won't catch us that way!"

"Does everyone agree with this? There's no turning back once we've moved."

The group agreed after only a few seconds of discussion. There was no other place thy could think of running too, and Yukari offered them a haven to stay in.

"Very well; everyone, stand near me. On three: one, two h—"

"Wait!" called out a voice from beyond the gate.

It was Koishi. "I'm coming too," she told Yukari.

"Are you—"

"Absolutely."

"Alright, let's—"

A gust of wind blew Koishi's hat off her head.

"Wait! My hat!"

Koishi desperately chased her hat for a few seconds, almost losing it over the wall, but Meiling jumped and caught it. She gave it to Koishi, "You really seem to like this hat," Meiling said.

Koishi smiled at Meiling, and told her, "My hat is my friend; it helps me relax."

"I'll go my separate way when we get there," Koishi told Yukari.

"I suppose I'm going as well?" Eric asked Yukari.

"There's a good place where you can stay, Eric. Don't worry," she replied.

"Alright," Yukari told them, "Everyone ready? Let's go!"

In a flash, the world around them turned to nothingness, and then there was total darkness. When the light returned to their eyes, they were greeted to a beautiful sunrise, and a magnificent view of a valley that looked untouched by time. In the distance, there stood a great mountain in the centre of the valley, further still a large lake, with rivers flowing in and out of it, some towards the mountain. Closer to them was a large village, surrounded by rice fields. On the edges of the valley were more mountains, blocking off what was beyond from sight.

"This place is beautiful," Sakuya told Yukari, "where are we?"

Yukari smiled, and told all of them, "This is a place locked away from the world you were in only a few moments ago. This is a land where magic, and monsters, and gods, and demons reside. This is where the beliefs of the old world went to be sealed to be lost forever, but have instead multiplied and thrived. This is a hostile but beautiful land, a place that is but a dream or a fantasy to those outside, a land of illusions. This is Gensokyo."

End Luna.


	16. Appx: Lunarian Declaration of Victory

**Appendix 1: Lunarian Declaration of Victory and Cessation of Hostilities**

An announcement to the populace of the 13 Districts of the Lunar Capital:

This document exists to declare a formal end to the hostilities and to celebrate the hard-fought victory achieved by the Lunarians after sixteen years of bloody battle against the combined military expedition forces of the planet Earth. The First Lunar War has officially concluded.

Today, we remember the sacrifice of the Lunar Defense Corps in their struggle to stem the tide of Terran impurity and imperialism. Our victory, stands as a testament to physical, mental, and moral Lunarian superiority over the humans of the planet Earth.

We commemorate the heroes of this war, lest we forget the thousands of Lunarians and Moon Rabbits who gave their lives in the struggle to defend the sovereignty of the Lunar Capital against foreign invaders.

We honor the Lunar Constabulary, who bravely took up arms and went beyond the call of duty to fight the invaders on the streets of the thirteen districts when the Terrans breached the silver gates on the last day.

We honor the Lunar Army, who valiantly stood as the first line of defense throughout the entirety of the war, unshakable and unbreakable. We will never forget the immeasurable sacrifice of the Army on the last day, where they were nearly annihilated by the relentless Terran onslaught.

We honor the Lunar Navy, for it was their spacecraft that inflicted the final blow on the Terran forces, and it was their marines who retook the lower districts from the imperialist Earth forces on the last day.

We honor the Lunar Royal Guard, for keeping safe our Lord, the great Tsukuyomi, and protecting the princess, Toyohime, and her sister, Yorihime, in the thick of battle on the last day.

After the costly victory on the last day, where the Lunar Defense Corps was spent and lost nearly all its Moon Rabbit soldiers, and where the Terrans were annihilated, a peace treaty has been established. A peace between human beings, a peace between the humans who left the filth of the Earth, and the humans who chose to stay. Though in our reality, neither side considers the other as human, and the peace is uneasy, it is still peace nonetheless.

On the scarred surface of the moon, in the Lunar Sea of Tranquility, there rests a flag of red, white, and blue; a flag of stars and stripes. That flag belongs to a nation of the Earth, the first nation that dared to tread on our sacred soil, and stands today as their first and last statement of imperialism on the moon. It remains there only to remind both sides of the bloodshed that flag has caused.

It is hoped that both sides of this war have learned that another war of this scale would not be in any one's interest. Earth and Luna can ill-afford another entanglement akin to this one. In the conclusion of the war it is hoped that Earth has learned the consequences of attempting imperialist conquest against superior adversaries, while here on Luna we have learned that we must remain ever vigilant, as even an inferior force can greatly devastate our sovereignty.

Let us hope that in the future these two entities, Terra and Luna, Earth and Moon, despite the animosity and hatred, can turn this uneasy peace that is at the moment, nothing more than a stoppage of hostilities, into a lasting and prosperous peace for both.

_This document was published by request of the Office of the Lunar Dignitaries and Ambassadors, and has been approved and endorsed by the Office of the Marshal of the Lunar Defense Corps, as well as her royal highness, the Princess of the Moon, Watatsuki no Toyohime._

_Originally published in Terran time: 8 March, 1985._


End file.
